Acclaimed rock climbers help USF craft better prosthetics

Media General News Service
Cara Fortunato, a nationally-ranked Extremity Games amputee rock climber, scales a climbing wall using her fully articulated prosthesis. Fortunato visited Tampa Friday to assist USF in conducting a study of the metabolic demands of rock climbing with unilateral transfemoral amputees. The goal of the study was to find out which condition works the best and is the most energy efficient--no prosthesis, stubby prosthesis-foot forward and foot backwards, and full articulated walking prosthesis-knee locked and knee unlocked.

By B.C. MANION Media General News Service Published: August 27, 2008

TOWN ’N COUNTRY — Coming off a recent win at the Extremity Games in Michigan, Cara Fortunato quickly scaled the 24-foot wall at Vertical Ventures. The athlete wasn’t aiming for a personal best. She was doing her bit for science. The female rock-climbing champion flew into Tampa for a day last week to help researchers figure out what kind of artificial limb works best for amputees in their quest to climb rock walls. She’s one of three nationally ranked amputee rock climbers who have volunteered in the University of South Florida research project. Each climber scaled the wall at the indoor rock-climbing gym near Tampa International Airport under five conditions. They wore a stubby leg prosthesis with a foot facing forward and one with a foot facing backward; they wore a fully articulated prosthetic leg with a knee lock and one without; and they wore no prosthesis at all. They also wore masks equipped with oxygen sensors to track how much effort each climb took. The goal was to find which condition works best, said Jason Highsmith, a visiting assistant professor at USF’s School of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitative Sciences. “We don’t know if one is easier. We know the stubby seems to be preferred by a lot of people. But a lot of people climb with no prosthesis,” Highsmith said. The value of the research extends beyond helping amputee athletes perform well, he said. Rock climbing is one of the therapies used to help wounded war veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan to resume active lives, Highsmith said. “The three major military hospitals have all invested in climbing walls,” he said. “They’re looking for lifetime fitness pursuits (to offer to injured veterans). This is something you can do as a lifetime pursuit.” The rock-climbing research is one element in a $1 million federal Department of Education demonstration project granted to USF. Other parts of the demonstration project included developing an artificial hand that kayakers can use, testing artificial knees and creating educational materials, Highsmith said. The educational materials, available free through the project’s Web site, provide practical information for people who are new to the world of prosthetics and orthotics, and to those well-versed in the topics. The site contains everything from common terms, to what acronyms mean, to what new amputees can expect, to where they can turn for funding and more information. Fortunato, who spends most of the year in Crofton, Md., and the rest in Bonita Springs, met Highsmith a few years ago and said she wanted to help him. “What they’re trying to prove and test will help a lot of climbers,” she said. Ronnie Dickson, another nationally ranked climber, also volunteered his time and skills. “We have a lot of war veterans coming back. This is one of the choice sports that some of the guys have been taking up,” Dickson said. “One of the best ways to get through rehab is to really focus on something, to find something that’s physically rewarding and challenging. This seems to be a sport that amputees can take up pretty well.”

Young amputees leap over limits

With record-setting runner as role model, foundation prompts kids to try sports

Ashley Messick, left, of Durham gets a little help from her mother, Ashley Messick, right, on a jump rope routine. Ashley, 9, finds it easier to easier to jump rope without her prosthetic leg. Staff photo by Corey Lowenstein
Story Tools

By Jay Price, Staff Writer
DURHAM -- After 9-year-old Hannah Messick took off her leg to jump rope on just one, 7-year-old Haley Harris had to try it too.
A small experiment, but exactly what organizers of a Saturday program for child amputees were trying to do: spread the idea that it's OK to try just about any physical activity despite missing limbs.
The Children's Amputee Foundation, started by the family of an elite disabled runner from Greensboro, Andrew Lester, invited area child amputees to Trinity School of Durham and Chapel Hill for a day of sports and games.
Lester, a rising senior at Campbell University who is missing his lower right leg, competes in paralympic track events around the globe and set a world record in the 1,500-meter run.
He told the 10 child amputees who came Saturday that he started running after attending a similar event featuring amputee athletes and that he wanted to do the same for them.
Two other high-achieving young leg amputees -- triathlete Kelly Bruno of Durham and UNC student and Morehead Scholar Stamp Walden of Vass -- also spoke. Bruno told the kids that she played soccer, baseball and basketball, swam, ran track and practiced martial arts before turning to triathlons. In less than two weeks, she is expected to become the first disabled ball girl at a U.S. Open tennis tournament.
The point, though, isn't necessarily to aim for high-level sports but to realize an amputation doesn't mean serious limits to physical activity, Bruno said.
"It doesn't matter what you do, just find something and pursue it," she said.
Then she, Lester and Walden helped the kids try kickball, freeze tag, basketball and foot races.
The event was as much for parents as for the young amputees. The kids often have fewer fears about trying new sports than their parents have about letting them, said Nancy Payne, limb loss clinical nurse specialist at Duke Medical Center.
"The parents will be concerned about what the kids can do and worry that they'll hurt themselves, but when you see this kind of thing," she said, gesturing at a field full of shrieking kids playing kickball, "it's a no-brainer.
"In truth, the kids can do about anything they want."
Physical activity is important for kids missing a limb for the same reasons it's important to other kids, Payne said. An amputation can lure kids into a sedentary lifestyle, especially without role models like Lester, she said.

Camp For Amputees Provides Fun

Web Editor: Kara Matuszewski Posted By: Kristin DiCara, 1 day ago ROME
(NEWS CENTER) -- Camp No Limits teaches amputees that they can still do the same things everyone else can.

Click here for Video

Volunteer Chad Thompson said as campers make new friends and see what other kids can do, they learn to set goals and do activities they never thought they could.

The volunteers teach the campers how to do their daily living activities, either with or without a prothesis.

"I'm here to bond with them, and I'm here to show them all my different types of prothesises and just let them know that there's nothing they can't do," said Carrie Davis. "My motto is, if you don't have an arm, you don't have an excuse, because there is something that is going to help you achieve any goal that you have."

Camp No Limits is a place where kids with amputations can come, and be aware that they're not the only kids out there, said Cameron Clapp. "And also, it's a place where they can build confidence, that they can do anything they want," he said.

Camp no limits has grown from only 3 campers a few years ago, to nearly 40 this year in Maine. Other Camp No Limits are run in California, Idaho, and Florida.

NEWS CENTER

Amputee Marine returns to combat duty

A year after Cpl. Garrett Jones lost his left leg to a bomb in Iraq, he has rejoined his unit in Afghanistan. Improved medical care and prostheses -- and his determination -- made it possible.
By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 6, 2008
CAMP BARBER, AFGHANISTAN --

Just over a year ago, Cpl. Garrett Jones was one of thousands of Marines slogging through a tour of duty in Iraq. Today, he is deployed with the same unit in Afghanistan, but he serves now with an unusual distinction.

Garrett with friendsDozens of insurgents killed in Afghanistan battle
U.S. prepares to boost its forces in Afghanistan
Deadly Taliban attack on U.S. bases raises concerns
On July 23, 2007, Jones was on foot patrol near the Iraqi city of Fallouja when he was injured by a roadside bomb. After the attack, his left leg was amputated above the knee. He developed infections and fevers. His weight dropped from 175 pounds to 125. At 21, Jones faced months of painful rehabilitation and a likely end to his service in the Marine Corps.

One year later, Jones is walking smoothly on a prosthetic leg. He not only continues to serve on active duty, but he has worked his way back to a war zone, serving with his Marine battle buddies in Afghanistan.

In previous wars, Jones would have received a medical discharge and returned to civilian life. But in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, the Pentagon has made it possible for some amputees to return to duty -- and for a few to deploy overseas again. Advances in medical care and high-tech prostheses have enabled amputees to function far better.

Jones said he couldn't bear the thought of not deploying with close friends in his unit after he learned last fall that they would be sent to Afghanistan. He also wanted to pave a path for other amputees and show them what's possible, he said.

"I want to be someone an injured Marine can talk to," Jones said. "And I can tell them: 'Times will be rough and not always easy as an amputee, but you can still make great things out of an unfortunate situation.' That's what I want to do."

Sgt. Matthew Leonard, who served with Jones in Iraq and now works beside him at this desert base in southern Afghanistan, said Jones has earned a special status among Marines because he demanded to be sent back to combat.

"He didn't just choose to come -- he fought to come," Leonard said. "We bled and sweated with this guy in Iraq, and he wants to be with us more than anything. That's awesome."

Jones, 22, of Newberg, Ore., is among a small number of Marines who have lost a limb in Iraq or Afghanistan and returned to duty in a war zone. (A Marine Corps spokesman said the Corps is unable to provide accurate figures.)

Sixty-two soldiers, airmen or sailors have lost limbs in combat and returned to active duty, according to spokesmen for the Army, Navy and Air Force.

No information was available for the number of those amputees who have returned to duty in Iraq or Afghanistan; some estimates put the number at about a dozen.

Nearly 900 of the 33,000 total U.S. wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan have lost at least one limb, according to the Pentagon. Partly because of manpower shortages and partly to retain veterans with combat experience and other expertise, the military has cleared the way in recent years for amputees and other injured service members to remain on active duty.

Unit commanders decide after consulting military doctors what type of duties to assign amputees, either in the U.S., on an overseas base or in a war zone, said Lt. Col. George Wright, an Army spokesman.

Jones said he had to pass medical tests and prove in training that he could walk effectively, get in and out of a Humvee and perform other physical tasks. Once, while in a simulator that mimics a Humvee rolling over, his prosthesis popped off, he said. He reattached it and continued the drill.

Jones didn't get his first prosthesis until November. By the end of December, he had learned how to snowboard again, a sport he had enjoyed for years. He plans to compete in freestyle snowboarding in the 2010 Paralympics in Vancouver, Canada.

"I can do stuff on a snowboard I don't think any other amputee can do," he said. He would compete to win, which would create "good publicity for the Marine Corps," he said.

"He's amazing -- he can do anything," said Cpl. Paul Savage, who works with Jones here at the headquarters for the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, which is based in Twentynine Palms. "There are no limitations with this guy."

Jones looks like a lot of other Marine enlisted men on the base -- young, fit, suntanned and energetic. Except for a limp, he blends in easily. He is engaging and forthright. He discusses his injuries coolly, without a trace of self-consciousness.

"I roll with the punches," he said. "I'll always have some pain and discomfort, and I've accepted that."

For more on the story
click here.

Operation Amped

Military amputees paddle to catch a wave during Operation Amped, a surf camp for injured service men and women on August 2, 2008 at Camp Pendleton, California. Patients from Naval Medical Center San Diego (Balboa) with amputations, spinal injuries and traumatic brain injuries learn to address cognitive, physical, and psycho-social skills during the surfing instruction as part of their rehabilitation program.