Andrew Bateson: An 'Up and Running' Miracle

By Renelle Richardson







Andrew Bateson is an active 14-year-old. He’s a whiz on the ice and on his bike.

“[For] my dirt bike, I have a Honda,” says Andrew. “I like that because it flies. It goes really fast! I just like hitting the jumps and being in the air.

“Some people treat me differently, and I really don’t like that. If I’m playing a sport they’ll be like, ‘You can sit down whenever you want.’ I want them to be hard on me like the regular kids so when I get older I’ll learn to push myself.”

Andrew lost both of his legs when he was six years old. His parents, Scott and Rebecca, remember just how they felt when they learned that their son would have to endure a double amputation.

“What had I done that God made this happen,” asks Scott. “I guess that was my reaction at first. I must have done something wrong, and this is His way of punishing me because this would be the ultimate way to punish a parent.”

On July 3, 1997, Andrew complained he was hot and tired. The next morning, his parents noticed tiny scratch-like marks on his chest. Rebecca recalls, “The scratches became blotches, and then the blotches moved up and down his chest. They were all on his legs. I was literally watching him turn purple in front of our eyes.”

Bruises developed under Andrew’s skin and began to spread. Scott and Rebecca rushed him to Rhode Island hospital.

Dr. James Linakis was first on the scene in the pediatric emergency room.
“I knew exactly what it was,” says Dr. Linakis. “I’ve seen children die within a matter of hours of the time of presentation.”

Andrew had bacterial meningitis, an infection of the blood and the lining that surrounds the brain. It’s still a mystery just how he contracted the often fatal illness.

“When I heard the word bacterial meningitis, my first feeling was of helplessness,” says Rebecca. “As a mother, your reaction is to want to protect your child. As time went on I realized that this was beyond any miracle lips I had. There was no way I could kiss these boo-boos away.”

Doctors and nurses worked round-the-clock to keep Andrew alive…

“You pray that he lives,” says Scott. “That was really the main prayer that I had at the time. 'Please let my son live. Don’t take him away. He’s too young.'”

Andrew lied in a coma for 23 days. Bacteria set off a toxic reaction in his body, and he went in to kidney failure.

Then doctors realized that no blood was circulating in his legs. They presented Scott and Rebecca with only one option: both legs would have to be amputated.

“Here’s my son at six years old going to be in a wheelchair,” says Scott. “He’s going to be watching his friends play. All I could see was my son sitting there in a wheelchair being unhappy. At that point, I was without a plan.”

Family, friends and neighbors took turns praying for Andrew, but to doctors, the situation looked grim.

Dr. Linakis says, “I’ve never seen a child who had that degree of a rash -- with that kind of progression -- survive this disease.”

“I put everything I had into prayer that God was going to help Andrew,” says Scott.

Their church held a prayer and healing service just for Andrew, and on the day of his amputation surgery, Andrew’s lead surgeon gave his parent the news they had been waiting for! Andrew, though still in a coma, would definitely survive!

The young athlete awoke to the realization that he had lost both of his legs.
As Andrew regained his strength, he endured countless hours of physical therapy. Then came the big day. After more than three months in hospital, Andrew went home!

But the homecoming was bittersweet as the six-year-old adjusted to life without legs.









Fast forward eight years. Andrew’s back enjoying the sports he loves! He took a break to show us just how his legs work.




“The first thing that I do in the morning is I get my silicones, which is a rubber type material,” says Andrew. “When I apply it to my leg it sticks on to it. Then there is a pin at the bottom of my leg. I take the leg -- there is a hole at the bottom -- and I have to line the pin with the hole. Then when you hear that (click) noise that means it’s in.”

Scott says, “He just amazes me with some of the things that he goes out and does. He doesn’t think about his legs getting in the way. If he had a problem, he seems to work around it, and he finds a way to do it.”

“What I’ve learned from God is that you can put your faith in Him 100 percent, and He will give you back 100 percent,” Rebecca says. “He was just as unhappy and sad over what happened with Andrew as we were. But He has come forth and given us strength to be the family we are today.”

Since his time in the hospital, Andrew has received a lot of community support. In fact, when local journalist Mark Patinkin picked up on Andrew’s story, he thought he would just write a column about the family’s ordeal. However, when he learned of the Bateson’s tremendous faith and reliance on prayer, he decided instead to write a book – Up and Running.

“When I say I wove faith through this book, it wasn’t just to chronicle faith as a source of comfort to the family,” says Mark. “What struck me -- and still strikes me to this day -- is how faith seemed to play a tangible role even in the medical outcome. I’m not even sure how to fully explain it. I’m a secular journalist. But I will sit here and tell you there was evidence that God’s hand somehow touched this situation.”

Yoga for the Lower Limb Amputee: Breathing Exercises

The increasingly popular practice of yoga offers something for everyone; if you’re an amputee, it can be especially helpful for reducing stress, becoming comfortable in your body, decreasing back pain (often associated with wearing a prosthetic), improving strength and flexibility, and enhancing mood and energy levels. This 5,000-year-old body of knowledge that originated in India includes physical poses, breathing techniques, and meditation. Ultimately, yoga—which means union—harmonizes our body, mind, and spirit.


The first of this two-part series offers two breathing exercises designed to help focus the mind, oxygenate the body, and release toxins. Proper breathing also cultivates energy and reduces stress and fatigue. The second article will introduce a series of yoga poses designed to address the common concerns of lower limb amputees: improving balance, reducing stress, bringing awareness into the body, helping to alleviate back pain, and stretching and strengthening muscles.


When practicing yoga, treat your body with compassion, and never hold a pose if it becomes painful or even uncomfortable. If you meet and accept your body where it is at, you will gradually reap the full benefits of yoga—a calm and focused mind and strong and flexible body.


Certified yoga instructor and below-the-knee amputee Marsha Therese Metzger recommends practicing with your prosthetic on—her prosthesis, she says, becomes part of her when she puts it on each morning. Although you may choose to practice without your prosthetic, wearing it may help to hold and contain your limb.


Yogic Breathing Exercises
Yogic breathing exercises promote proper breathing to ensure an adequate oxygen supply to the entire body, including the organs, and especially to the brain. Proper breathing also helps the body rid itself of waste products and toxins.


Basic Yogic Breathing Exercises
All yoga is based on staying connected to your breath, and this basic exercise will help you “connect” with your most elemental physical being.








Three-Part Breath (above)
(Strengthens breathing muscles, calms the mind, and focuses attention on the present moment.)






Alternate Nostril Breathing (above)
This more-advanced breathing exercise integrates the right and left hemispheres of the brain, improves efficiency of breathing, reduces stress.

• Come to a comfortable seated position, Easy Pose or in a chair with your feet resting solidly on the floor, hip width apart.
• Tuck the index and third fingers of your right hand into the palm.
• Place your right thumb lightly on your right nostril; place your right index finger lightly on your left nostril.
• Block off the right nostril with your thumb and inhale through the left nostril.
• Block off the left nostril with your index finger and exhale through the right nostril.
• Inhale through the right nostril, block it off with the thumb, and exhale through the right nostril.
• Repeat sequence, inhaling through left, exhaling right, inhaling right, and exhaling left.
• Continue for five rounds, increasing as you feel comfortable up to 10 minutes.

Thanksgiving

In light of The Thanksgiving Holiday this week, I wanted to post something a little different. Please feel free to post your own inspirational story as well. and since a picture is worth a thousand words, please share whatever the following pictures inspire you to share. Happy Thanksgiving! I am grateful for the daily opportunity to share my life with so many wonderful people through the internet!



















Thanksgiving is the time to feel gratitude for all the good things in life. It is a time to acknowledge the good deeds of fellowmen and be thankful. Thanksgiving thoughts of people give us an insight as to what people feel about it.

Life can be very trying. When your child is hungry, your body wracked with pain, or you have no idea where you and your family will find a place to sleep, pay your rising bills, or make ends meet, it's hard to find something for which you can be thankful. So, for just a few minutes on Thanksgiving Day, step outside your situation and just "be". Find something, no matter how small, to be thankful for because in giving thanks, you will be lightening your load, even if for only a moment


People in Europe were living in squalid conditions, battling hunger and the aftermath of the plague, were being terrorized in the name of religion and came to America, the land of opportunity, in the hopes of building a new and better life. These immigrants, called Pilgrims, were welcomed by the inhabitants of America, the Indians, who were hospitable to the newcomers in every sense of the word. How is it then that the descendants of the Pilgrims managed to take over all the land in America and banish the Indians to hot, arid reservations in the middle of nowhere? Somehow, that has never felt right to me. Do the Indians celebrate Thanksgiving?


Who does not thank for little will not thank for much. (Estonian proverb)


Thanksgiving thoughts are the kind of thoughts that we should have all year long. For it is the folks with thankful hearts whose lives are filled with song. We should take time for kindness to those we hold most dear,and just extend a helping hand to others through the year. Let's set aside some quiet time and share it with a friend. For friendships brings a special joy and pleasure without end. So may the blessings of this day that I would ask for you, now fill you with Thanksgiving Peace that lasts the whole year through!

Heart of a Champion: The Story of Jean Driscoll

Jean was born in Milwaukee, WI with spina bifida (an open spine). It affected her ability to walk and included other neurological complications as well. Although there were challenges during childhood, her determination to get the most out of life was always there. She began using a wheelchair at the age of 15 and after learning about wheelchair sports from a high school friend, she started pursuing athletic opportunities with fervor. The Milwaukee Public Schools Division of Recreation provided her first wheelchair sports experiences. After being recruited to the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, world-renowned coaches developed her into one of the world’s most successful competitors.

During her career, Jean was the first eight time winner of the Boston Marathon. She set 5 new course records as well as 5 world best times and has held Boston’s fastest time in the women’s wheelchair division since 1990. It currently stands at 1 hour, 34 minutes and 22 seconds for the 26.2 mile distance. In addition to her success in Boston, Jean also won two Olympic medals, 12 Paralympic medals, and still holds the world record in the 10,000 meter (6.2 mile) track event that was set during the 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. Jean remains the only 12–time champion of the Lilac Bloomsday 12K Road Race held in Spokane, Washington and still owns the course record in her division from 1995.

Her successes have been celebrated by many. The University of Rhode Island and the Massachusetts School of Law awarded her Honorary Doctorate degrees in 1997 and 2002 respectively. Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines provided Jean with one of its highest honors in 2003 when they named her the Godmother of their Voyager Class Series ship, Mariner of the Seas. She is also in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ “Hall of Champions.” and the Wheelchair Sports, USA Hall of Fame.

Jean retired from her successful racing career following the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, Australia. For over 20 years, she has offered encouragement and motivation as a speaker to hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Through a partnership that began in 2001 with Joni and Friends, Inc., Jean began working with people who have disabilities in Ghana, West Africa. Her alma mater, the University of Illinois, has caught the vision and is now supporting this work as well. In addition to motivational speaking, Jean works as the Associate Director of Development for the College of Applied Health Sciences at the U of I.












Additional story on Jean Driscoll & The Easter Seals
















Jean Driscoll clearly remembers the first time she attended Easter Seals camp. It was the first time she didn’t feel different.

At home, Jean stood out among nondisabled friends and family. An 8-year-old with spina bifida, she used leg braces for mobility.

But at Easter Seals camp, Jean was surrounded by children with a variety of other disabilities -- many more challenging than her own. Suddenly she stood out not because of her disability, but because of her natural leadership abilities.

Counselors at Easter Seals Camp looked to Jean to assist and inspire other campers, which in turn boosted her confidence and self-esteem. For Jean, seeing herself as a leader was an important first step toward becoming a world-class athlete and an international advocate for people with disabilities.

Today, at age 36, Jean acknowledges, “I’ve done a lot in my life that most people only dream of.”

During her career as an elite wheelchair racer, Jean won the Boston Marathon eight times, the only person in the race’s 107-year history, in any division, to achieve that feat. She won two silver medals in Olympic exhibition events and 12 medals in the Paralympics, which are held two weeks after the Olympic Games in the same host city. Jean also holds several world records, and -- among her many honors and awards -- she was named one of the top 25 female athletes of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated for Women magazine.

Now retired from professional competition, Jean is focused on sharing her message about succeeding in all aspects of life. She also works to help others with disabilities benefit from the advantages sports can offer -- an endeavor that has taken Jean to the country of Ghana in West Africa, half a world away from Milwaukee, Wis., where she grew up and first learned to love athletics.

A Setback Followed by a Leap
Jean has spina bifida, a condition characterized by an incomplete closure of the spine at birth. Throughout most of her childhood, Jean was able to walk with leg braces.

A setback occurred during her freshman year in high school, when Jean dislocated her hip riding a bike. It was a serious injury that required five surgeries and a year in a full body cast.

Even after such measures, Jean’s hip became dislocated again. As a result, at age 15, Jean obtained her first wheelchair. Despite confidence gained at Easter Seals camp when she was younger, Jean became depressed. She saw a lifetime of limitations ahead of her.

A year later, Jean’s life took a leap forward when she reluctantly attended a wheelchair soccer practice. “It was real sport,” she recalls. “Wheelchairs were crashing into one another, and I loved the fact the coaches didn’t panic when players fell out of their chairs.”

From that point on, Jean couldn’t get enough of sports. She played soccer, ice hockey, tennis, and basketball and began to appreciate her wheelchair as a vital piece of equipment that enabled her to compete.

“It was like this whole world I’d been trying to get into suddenly opened up to me,” Jean says, “and, ironically, my wheelchair -- which I’d thought was so limiting -- was the key.”

From Recreation to Elite Athletic Competition
Jean’s athletic abilities eventually caught the attention of the University of Illinois, and she was recruited to play wheelchair basketball there. Seeing that Jean also excelled at track events, her college coach encouraged her to compete in marathons. Jean won her first national-level race in 1989 and from there began her professional sporting career.

Besides the rigors of training and the thrill of competing, Jean enjoyed another benefit of being involved in sports. Her attitudes about disability, as well as the attitudes of others, were profoundly affected. “I began to see my disability as a
characteristic, like my hair color,” she says. “My disability doesn’t define who I am.”

Sports can be a powerful vehicle for changing attitudes that limit people with disabilities, Jean found. “Our biggest limitations are the ones we place on ourselves, or that others place on us.”

Spreading the Message and Changing Lives
Today as a professional speaker and author, Jean addresses the topic of failure as much as success. She routinely speaks to corporations and organizations, and her book, Determined to Win, chronicles her story.

“What I try to help others understand is that failure is not the opposite of success, it is part of the process that leads to success,” Jean says. “For example, when you are sore after a workout, it’s because your muscles have developed tiny tears. Once repaired, the muscle is stronger than before. Likewise, after we experience failure, we are stronger, wiser and more prepared to take on life’s challenges.”

Remarkable Recovery: Neil Sullivan- Firefighter

A firefighter regains his strength and mobility
Neil Sullivan
Amputee












It's the love and support of family and friends - including the people of Spaulding - that have made Neil's long road back possible.

Background
In August of 2005, firefighter Neil Sullivan was badly injured when the brakes on a fire truck unexpectedly released, pinning him between two trucks. In spite of efforts to reattach one of his legs during lengthy emergency surgery, one of his legs had to be amputated in order to save his life.
After emerging from a coma, his family decided on Spaulding for his rehabilitative care.

Neil's Story
Jessica Sullivan, Neil's wife:
When Neil met his inpatient therapist Cara, the two immediately hit it off, becoming great friends. Somehow Cara managed to transform the drudgery of rehab sessions into something that was almost fun.
While at Spaulding Neil received a visit from six-year-old David Eustace, who had lost his left leg in a horrific car accident at his elementary school in Stoneham, Massachusetts. At Spaulding, David had learned how to once again run and play baseball with a prosthetic leg. Now he wanted to meet his hero, the fireman. David's enthusiastic attitude - and his racing around the hospital room - were a real inspiration to Neil.






After six-and-a-half weeks at Spaulding, on the day of our third anniversary, Neil came home to our new house, our new son Thomas, and me. He has since continued his rehab, at Spaulding with Allison, his outpatient therapist, who had a tough act to follow in Cara but has shown a similarly high level of dedication in working with Neil. Neil and I have learned that Cara, Allison and the other Spaulding therapists share an incredible passion for what they do. They truly enjoy working with patients and helping them get back into life.

I am so grateful for the treatment Neil has received from Spaulding. It's the love and support of family and friends - including the people of Spaulding - that have made Neil's long road back possible.

For more information:
Amputee Rehabilitation Program

DOUBLE AMPUTEE OFFERS EVERY RUNNER INSPIRATION

After losing his legs in an accident, Scott Rigsby forged new ground as a triathlete.

By John Perra

PUBLISHED 11/30/2007
At mile 23 on the marathon portion of Hawaii's Ford Ironman World Championships in October, Scott Rigsby was in so much pain that he fantasized about falling onto a stretcher. He'd completed the 2.4-mile swim, the 112-mile bike, and most of the 26.2-mile run. The double amputee's residual limbs were blistered, swollen, and chafed raw, making each step feel like his skin was pressing into the hot coals of the surrounding lava fields. But when he saw 16:13 on his watch, he realized he had no time to waste feeling sorry for himself if he wanted to finish before the 17-hour cutoff. So he picked up the pace.

"That was the most pain I've inflicted on myself," says Rigsby, 39, who lives in Atlanta. "I started saying, 'This is what you've worked so hard for. If you can do this, you can change the world.'"

Indeed, Rigsby was after more than just bragging rights. He was out to defy expectations and redefine the potential of disabled athletes by becoming the first double amputee in the world to complete an Ironman.





Road to Kona

Rigsby was an 18-year-old high school football player in July 1986, when an accident changed the course of his life. Riding in the back of a trailer that was clipped from behind by an 18-wheeler, Rigsby was dragged 328 feet, and eventually pinned under the trailer he was riding in. His right leg was immediately amputated--the first of 17 surgeries he would endure over the next year. Doctors said it would be 18 months before he could walk again, never mind run. "I went through a denial stage, thinking it was going to grow back," Rigsby said. "It was a difficult time."

Five years later, Rigsby began classes at the University of Georgia, where he started swimming and biking. But he wanted to run. "If you tell me I can't do something," he says, "I'm going to find a way to do it." One day he hit the track, but on his fourth lap, his left foot, which had been reconstructed, couldn't withstand the force, and the seam between his skin graphs tore. The setback hit Rigsby hard. "I felt like a prisoner to my 'good' leg," he says.

In the ensuing seven years, Rigsby finished college, worked a variety of jobs in sales and construction, and sank into a depression, for which he was eventually treated. Finally, in 1998, he decided to have his left leg amputated below the knee. "With my new prosthesis, I could resign from being a professional patient," he says. "I finally had two good legs."

Inspiration came in December 2004, when Rigsby read a Runner's World story about Sarah Reinertsen, the first female above-the-knee amputee to attempt the Hawaii Ironman. "I had never even done a triathlon, but when I realized that no double amputee had done an Ironman," says Rigsby, "I decided I'd go for it."

Barriers fell one by one. In 2006, Rigsby became the first double amputee to finish an Olympic-distance triathlon and a half-Ironman. In March 2007, he became the first to finish 26.2 miles at the ING Georgia Marathon, in a time of 5:04. Three months later, Rigsby went for his ultimate goal at the Ford Ironman Coeur D'Alene triathlon in Idaho. He crashed on the bike, however, and neck and back pain forced him to call it a day halfway through the marathon.

Rigsby's next chance would be in Hawaii. On October 13, temperatures in Kona were in the mid 80s and the humidity was oppressive. Friends at the finish were getting antsy, unsure whether Rigsby would make it before time ran out. At last they saw him come down Alii Drive and cross the line. His final time on the clock: 16 hours, 42 minutes, and 46 seconds.

"Some people who go through an amputation end up being so inactive that they're at risk for obesity, depression, and diabetes," says Rigsby's training partner, Mike Lenhart, who runs the Getting2Tri Foundation. "Scott provides courage and inspiration to people and shows them their potential."

Realizing the impact he can have on others, in January 2007, Rigsby founded his own nonprofit organization to provide physically challenged athletes with coaching and mentoring support. "Once you accomplish something, it's easy to ride the wave of success and have your 15 minutes of fame," Rigsby says. "I want to stay the course and show people that you can take the life that God gave you and use it to do something extraordinary."

"Maybe other people--both able-bodied and amputees--can look at me and say, 'you know what? Life is tough, but if this guy can make it, then I can make it.'

Jarem Frye: Audacious Invention

By Morgan Stanfield

When Jarem Frye pushes off the chair lift and glides down a black-diamond slope, you can tell he's good. His knees bend rhythmically under a powerful set of quads in the unmistakable two-step of an expert telemark skier. He's measured and smooth, carving sprayless white tracks, bombing toward a ski jump below. He launches off it, cuts the air with a high backflip, lands in an explosion of powder, and disappears downhill. When you catch him at the bottom of the slope, he's taking a break. He pulls up the left cuff of his ski pants and twists off his left leg, dropping his boot, titanium calf, and self-invented left knee on the hardpack with a thunk. He looks up and grins.

Sixteen years ago, Frye was an 85-pound 14-year-old in a Utah Shriners Hospital, looking down at his natural left leg for the last time. He had osteosarcoma and had decided after spending more than a year in and out of hospitals that his best chance for an active life was amputation. His doctors told him that with a transfemoral amputation, he wouldn't be able to run, bike, ski, or rock climb. Snowboardinghis dreamwas out of the question. The hospital's poster-child for amputee athletic achievement was a boy who had walked just half a mile with his prosthetic leg. Frye would be given a four-bar knee and a SACH foot and supposedly go home to a life of similar achievements. He never swallowed that. He told The O&P EDGE , "The amputation didn't really change my plans for my life, and at the time, all I wanted to do was race mountain bikes." Immediately after the amputation, his parents bought him a new mountain bike, and using a clipless pedal, he rode more than 600 miles on it before receiving his prosthesis.

Frye says, "I understood that the doctors were telling me the current standards for what an above-knee amputee could do, but I also had the resourcefulness to find ways to do what everybody said I couldn't do. I had my own ideas about what I could do, or what I would be able to substitute doing." He soon discovered that with his simple prostheses, he could not only mountain bike, but runalbeit with a muscle-wrenching gait. Rock climbing was too dangerous to be worth it. Snowboarding was impossible, but thanks to the National Abilities Center, Park City, Utah, he learned to downhill ski and joined its three-track racing team. Frye showed his prosthetist what he could do and begged him to lobby Shriners for an energy-storing foot.






Photograph courtesy of Colin Botts.
Frye says, "At the time, it was ridiculous, like a 14-year-old asking for Paralympic-quality equipment. Meanwhile, I kept breaking everything that they had already bought me, so I was costing them a lot of money." Within three months, they sent the foot.

After high school, Frye started working at a ski resort. To his friends' scoffing, he decided to try telemarking. He realized that it was simply impossible to achieve its bent-knee stance without active lower-leg support .

Frye says, "To me, the only time that I was disabled was when I was unable to do something. When people said that I couldn't telemark, it became a quest to prove I could. I started analyzing my equipment to find out why it wasn't possible and to figure out how I could tweak things or completely reinvent them specifically for telemarking." He continues, "My Christmas presents from the time I was ten years old were things like grinders and forgesbuilding things was what I was most interested inso I didn't begin to think I couldn't build something."





With a year of continuous work, he created a Frankenstein's monster of an energy-storing knee, cobbling on parts, grinding it, and tuning it. Using the knee, Frye became the world's first person with a transtibial amputation to telemark. Deciding to reinvent the knee from scratch, he rigged another prosthesis frame with a shock-absorbing system made from cast-iron pipe and a car's valve spring. It worked better than the first one. He wore a second prototype of it through three ski seasons, doing his best to break it, and failing. His prosthetist, Lane Ferrin, CP, Northwest Orthotics and Prosthetics, Provo, Utah, said that before that time, Frye came in every six months to have his heavy-duty conventional prosthetic knee replaced or rebuilt.








At the resort, coworkers urged Frye to start a company to manufacture the knee. He pondered the number of amputees who would be interested in telemarking and dismissed the idea. However, he soon tried the knee in other sports, starting with rock climbing, and succeeded. "The next winter," he recalls, "I took it snowboarding, and that's when I realized there would be a market for it because I knew a lot of amputees who wanted to snowboard."

To begin, Frye spent the next six years learning machining, manufacturing, and engineering through a variety of jobs. He worked anywhere he could learn an essential new skill, and when he was done, he moved on. The energy-storing knee prototypes he produced were waterproof and practically indestructible. Using one, he became the first person with a transfemoral amputation to wakeboard and to competitively rock climb. At the 2006 Extremity Games, he took the overall rock-climbing championship.

One afternoon in the midst of his self-education, Frye was getting a haircut from a female friend when a beautiful red-haired woman dropped by to visit his barber. He remembers, "I started hitting on her, and she totally gave me the cold shoulder because she thought I was dating her friend and that I was a slimeball for flirting with her right in front of her friend." After straightening out the mix-up, they went out. Frye recalls with a laugh, "On our first date, we agreed that people in Utah get serious too fast and that you shouldn't get engaged without dating for a least a year. Five months later, we were married."





From left: Jarem, Jude, Ari, and Sara Frye. Photograph courtesy of Logan Ellis.
After he and Sara married, they moved to Oregon to work together for a commercial painting company. Within a month, they were laid off. Both deeply spiritual, they prayed for direction, and decided to start a business manufacturing Frye's knees. That business became Symbiotechs USA, Amity, manufacturer of the XT9 ESPK (energy-storing prosthetic knee). Around that time, they found out that they had started something elseSara was pregnant. Their son, Ari, was born in 2007, and just eight months later, another son was on the way. Their second son, Jude, is now five months old.

As their boys have grown, so have sales at Symbiotechs, though its ability to manufacture the knee is just beginning to meet the demand for it. Frye has turned the Symbiotechs website into a Generation-X marketing powerhouse that includes a social network for XT9 users, who share information about how to use the knee in various sports, including surfing, skateboarding, scuba, ice climbing, and motorcycle riding. It also features clips from the upcoming Symbiotechs-sponsored Xamped Film Festival, whose short films showcase unique athletes, "from blind climbers to double-amputee pro snowboarders, to paraplegics who do backflips in wheel chairs."

Sara says that Frye would like to grow the company to the point that it could help sponsor individual athletes and the Extremity Games. He'd also like to expand Symbiotechs' offerings for the customers whom he cares so much about. Frye's future looks as good as his telemarking formmeasured, determined, and with the grace that comes from healthy audacity.

Prosthetic leg boosts promise of elite cyclist

By Tanya Mannes


STAFF WRITER
2:00 a.m. May 25, 2009
Dedan Ireri of Kenya completed a training ride with his host, Chris Maund, in Encinitas. Ireri hopes to compete in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London. (Howard Lipin / Union-Tribune) -
A new leg for Dedan
Dedan Ireri lost his right leg in an accident when he was a child. Despite his disability, the Kenyan is a competitive cyclist who rides a bicycle with just one leg. Encinitas residents Chris Maund and Janet Alexander brought him to San Diego County for three months in 2009 to obtain a prosthetic leg. Video by Tanya Mannes.
by Union-Tribune

More Videos Chris Maund helped Dedan Ireri with exercises to prepare him to use a new carbon-fiber and titanium leg. (Howard Lipin / Union-Tribune)
ENCINITAS — After losing his right leg in a childhood accident, Dedan Ireri thought he would never walk again.
Yet he was determined to keep moving. He learned to ride a beat-up bicycle with his one good leg, pumping the pedal and propelling himself past able-bodied riders on the dust-covered roads of his native Kenya.
“Riding bike makes me feel strong,” said Ireri, 28.
But off the bike, his crutches were a constant reminder of his disability, and his poverty.
That was until he met an Encinitas couple traveling in Africa. They struck up a friendship over their love of cycling, and vowed to help Ireri walk again.
Janet Alexander and Chris Maund are hosting Ireri on a three-month visit to San Diego County and have helped him obtain his first prosthetic leg.
Today, Ireri will return to his family in Nairobi, able to walk unassisted for the first time in 16 years.
“I am feeling very happy,” he said in a recent interview, speaking carefully because Swahili is his first language. “I am happy to be here.”
Alexander and Maund train athletes – including cyclists – at the C.H.E.K. Studio in Encinitas. They are using their expertise in musculoskeletal rehabilitation to help Ireri learn to use his new carbon-fiber and titanium leg, which has a hydraulic knee and a springy, energy-saving foot.
They also have bought him a new Roubaix Pro bicycle. Eventually, Ireri will be fitted with a special socket for attaching his stump to the prosthesis that will allow him to ride the bike with both legs. That probably will happen next year because he needs to adapt to the walking socket.
Maund and Alexander said they were inspired to help Ireri because they recognized his athletic prowess and felt he deserved a chance to excel. They count him as an equal among the elite athletes they have trained, such as Ironman world champion Heather Fuhr.
“If he had two legs he'd probably be good enough to be one of the top amateur athletes in the country,” Maund said. “I like encouraging people I know have potential.”
The couple said they were amazed by Ireri when they met him in 2007 during the Tour D'Afrique, a 7,400-mile group bike ride from Cairo, Egypt, to Cape Town, South Africa. In each country, local riders temporarily joined the tour.
“This guy appears in the group and he only has one leg,” Maund said. “And then we start dialing the pace up racing and he's still there. He's very, very strong with one leg.”
Ireri was obviously not a beginner.
“He had all the gear,” Maund said. “He's got the jersey, the shorts, the helmet, the gloves.”
The couple stayed in touch with Ireri and helped him obtain a visa to visit the United States. They also raised nearly $30,000 – half of it their own money – to pay for his trip to California, the prosthetic leg and the bike.
Ireri's days in San Diego County have included rides to Torrey Pines and Escondido, appointments with specialists, weight training and practice walking. He also is learning English, which will help his job prospects when he returns to Kenya.
Kel Bergmann, who fitted Ireri for his leg, said, “He learned to walk on that prosthesis as fast as anybody I've seen.”






Bergmann is the president of SCOPe Orthotics & Prosthetics Inc., the San Diego company that manufactured Ireri's leg. The first day that Ireri was to take home the prosthesis, “he basically handed Chris his crutches and refused to use them as he walked to the car,” Bergmann said.
Ireri grew up in the slums of Nairobi and for years lived on the street. As a child he supported himself through petty theft.
At age 12, he was hit by a bus and his leg was amputated at the upper thigh. After the accident, he survived by begging.
As a teenager, he met Ingrid Munro, a Swedish woman who heads JamiiBora, a charitable trust in Kenya that provides microfinance loans. Munro spent years trying to help Ireri start a small business or get a job.
Munro said Ireri was “a very charming boy with a big smile,” but it took time before he was ready to leave the street.
“The problem with beggars that have a big handicap is that they see that handicap as a fundraising asset,” Munro said in a telephone interview from Kenya. “In the very beginning we tried to help get some schooling but he snuck off all the time.”
Eventually, Ireri met Susan Wangui, who became his wife. The couple have three children: 2-year-old Benson, 5-year-old Peter and 9-year-old Lucy.
He joined a riding club, which helped him to increase his physical endurance with one leg. About four years ago, Ireri asked Munro if she would hire him as a bicycle messenger for JamiiBora.
His salary as a courier is now the main source of income for his family.
Munro said Ireri found a niche in the cycling community. In 2007, he competed in an international cycling competition in Colombia for people with physical disabilities. In the 15-kilometer race he placed 14th with an average speed of 35.9 kilometers per hour (22.3 mph). That time qualified him for the 2008 Paralympic Games in China, although his plans to go fell through.
“He has learned that there is nothing that is impossible,” Munro said.
These days, Ireri can't seem to stop smiling. And his eyes shine as he looks at his bicycle, with which he hopes to compete in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London.
“Good size, good weight,” he said. “I like it because in Africa many bike is steel. Now my bike is good bike, carbon fiber.”
Maund is optimistic about Ireri's future. “Once he learns to use the prosthetic leg properly, I really think it's possible he can win medals at Paralympics 2012,” Maund said.
Alexander and Maund are already planning to host him next year to continue his training.
Ireri said, “I looking for gold medal.”
“It is my dream,” he said. “One day I win a medal.”


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tanya Mannes: (619) 498-6639; tanya.mannes@uniontrib.com

Prosthetic legs don’t keep Texas boy from reaching dream.

Courageous Kid - The Ellen DeGeneres Show

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On October 2, 2001, the doctors decided that at 34 weeks, Cody McCasland was going to be delivered as the amniotic fluid was decreasing and Cody's growth was no longer increasing. Cody was delivered by an urgent cesarean section, and immediately, they knew things were not quite right. Mike, Cody's Father, could see that Cody's legs looked different, and he only had 4 toes on his right foot, but that was all he knew. The doctor's asked him not to say anything to Tina, Cody's Mother, as she was still in surgery herself. Cody did not breathe on his own for several minutes, but after he did, he was swaddled for Tina to hold for a few seconds.then off to the NICU. Mike followed. In the NICU Mike was told of all the problems by the physician, and then told to prepare for him to die. He was completely alone and the physician left. He came to Tina with the news, whom did not understand or believe it. Shortly thereafter, the doctor came in to talk with Tina and Mike, and said Cody was stable, but he was being transferred to another hospital, without Tina. He needed surgery within the next day or two and they could not perform it there. Tina was able to see Cody one last time in an incubator before transport, but then he and Mike were gone. Tina was adamant that she was going to be at the other hospital when Cody had surgery and was walking that evening. Cody's surgery was scheduled for the morning of day 3 and she was there. This was just the beginning of their medical journey with Cody. He remained in the NICU for 23 days, and had two of his now 15 surgeries, before going home.

The day before Thanksgiving, 2001, Cody stopped breathing while at home, and Tina had to perform CPR while waiting for paramedics to arrive. Cody began breathing on his own again, and would be taken to the local Children's Hospital. Unfortunately, it was not the hospital with Cody's specialists, so when they arrived and he was stable, the hospital decided to transfer him. Mike is now on the way to a part of town he has never been to, and is lost. Meanwhile, they are now ready to transport Cody and Tina, again by ambulance, to Children's Hospital Dallas. Mike hits rush hour traffic, but after 2 ½ hours of driving, finally finds them. Cody ends up needing his 3rd surgery, which actually includes five separate procedures, and has a nearly 3-week stay in the hospital, in which Tina has to stay the whole time. This meant the family spent their first Thanksgiving in the hospital. Mike would daily drive down to the hospital to give Tina a break, after working all day. After the daily drive became too much, they had to pay for a hotel room for Mike to sleep in at night, so he could see Tina and Cody, get sleep and still work. Again, this was just the beginning of his 15 total surgeries.

In December 2001, Cody had his first appointment at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. Up to now, no one has given the family a diagnosis, although they have come up with their own by researching the symptoms on the Internet. Although the doctors will not confirm the diagnosis, they do tell the family that Cody will require multiple surgeries, one of which will be an amputation of his right leg through the knee. Cody had no knee or tibia on the right side. They were uncertain about the problems with the left leg and would have to wait to see how it developed, as he got a little older. The first surgery would be a hip surgery to his right hip, which was dislocated, followed by 3 months in a hip spica cast. None of the orthopedic surgeries could begin though, until all the necessary medical surgeries were completed.

In January 2002, Cody again ended up in the ER at Children's Dallas because of abdominal concerns. He had an emergency surgery due to an adhesion caused by his November surgeries. Another 10 day stay in the hospital for both Cody and Tina, and Mike again juggled work, coming to the hospital to see Cody and Tina, and finding time to sleep.

The hospitalizations and surgeries continued on. Cody had numerous hospitalizations for infections and asthma/airways concerns, as well as for his surgeries. His next surgeries were in March 2002, on Tina's birthday, in April 2002 he had 3 surgeries, and in July 2002 he had two surgeries. In November 2002 Cody had a seizure with an unknown cause right before going to Children's Hospital Philadelphia for a second opinion on his legs. After coming home from that appointment, Cody had an MRI of his hips and legs to see what structures were present on each leg. This MRI showed that Cody was missing his tibia and knee on both the left and right side. Mike and Tina's choices were few - to leave him in a wheelchair with legs that would not function for him and wouldn't even allow him to sit normally or to have the portion of his legs from the knees down amputated to give him the opportunity to walk with prostheses. Bilateral amputation surgery was scheduled for January 2003. In December 2002, Cody caught RSV and again was in the hospital. He was released the day before Christmas, but this caused his surgery to be postponed until later in January. After Cody's amputation, he was trying to stand on his stumps later that day. Mike and Tina were so impressed by how he continued to deal so well with being in a hospital environment and keep his always-cheery disposition. Cody never lets anything bring him down. Two months after Cody had his surgery he was fitted with his first prosthetics and walking with assistance! In August 2003, Cody again had a surgery, and subsequently, spent about 6 weeks in the hospital between August and November due to airway and respiratory concerns. Again, Tina stayed in the hospital away from Mike, and Mike worked, came to visit and relieve Tina, while trying to find time to sleep. Due to Cody's continual illnesses that winter, Mike, Tina and Cody had to cancel their Christmas plans just a few days before Christmas and stay in Dallas. Since Cody had been born, they had not spent any holidays with Mike's family in California, which was very difficult. Luckily, Tina's mom and stepfather were there in Dallas for support and to spend the holidays with.

In June 2004, Cody was diagnosed with severe Osteopenia, putting him at an extremely high risk for a bone to break. Cody had to spend three days as an outpatient, every four months, getting infusion therapy to help re-generate his bones. He did this for a year and a half, and is now in re-mission.

Besides all of the above surgeries, Cody has also needed "regular kid" procedures such as tubes in his ears and gall bladder removal.

Through all of this, Cody has had the opportunity to participate in horseback riding, gymnastics, t-ball, soccer, swimming, running, golf, flying a plane, and many other adventures. Cody's limitless attitude will get him far in life and help him to reach his goals.












On October 2, 2001, the doctors decided that at 34 weeks, Cody McCasland was going to be delivered as the amniotic fluid was decreasing and Cody's growth was no longer increasing. Cody was delivered by an urgent cesarean section, and immediately, they knew things were not quite right. Mike, Cody's Father, could see that Cody's legs looked different, and he only had 4 toes on his right foot, but that was all he knew. The doctor's asked him not to say anything to Tina, Cody's Mother, as she was still in surgery herself. Cody did not breathe on his own for several minutes, but after he did, he was swaddled for Tina to hold for a few seconds.then off to the NICU. Mike followed. In the NICU Mike was told of all the problems by the physician, and then told to prepare for him to die. He was completely alone and the physician left. He came to Tina with the news, whom did not understand or believe it. Shortly thereafter, the doctor came in to talk with Tina and Mike, and said Cody was stable, but he was being transferred to another hospital, without Tina. He needed surgery within the next day or two and they could not perform it there. Tina was able to see Cody one last time in an incubator before transport, but then he and Mike were gone. Tina was adamant that she was going to be at the other hospital when Cody had surgery and was walking that evening. Cody's surgery was scheduled for the morning of day 3 and she was there. This was just the beginning of their medical journey with Cody. He remained in the NICU for 23 days, and had two of his now 15 surgeries, before going home.

The day before Thanksgiving, 2001, Cody stopped breathing while at home, and Tina had to perform CPR while waiting for paramedics to arrive. Cody began breathing on his own again, and would be taken to the local Children's Hospital. Unfortunately, it was not the hospital with Cody's specialists, so when they arrived and he was stable, the hospital decided to transfer him. Mike is now on the way to a part of town he has never been to, and is lost. Meanwhile, they are now ready to transport Cody and Tina, again by ambulance, to Children's Hospital Dallas. Mike hits rush hour traffic, but after 2 ½ hours of driving, finally finds them. Cody ends up needing his 3rd surgery, which actually includes five separate procedures, and has a nearly 3-week stay in the hospital, in which Tina has to stay the whole time. This meant the family spent their first Thanksgiving in the hospital. Mike would daily drive down to the hospital to give Tina a break, after working all day. After the daily drive became too much, they had to pay for a hotel room for Mike to sleep in at night, so he could see Tina and Cody, get sleep and still work. Again, this was just the beginning of his 15 total surgeries.

In December 2001, Cody had his first appointment at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. Up to now, no one has given the family a diagnosis, although they have come up with their own by researching the symptoms on the Internet. Although the doctors will not confirm the diagnosis, they do tell the family that Cody will require multiple surgeries, one of which will be an amputation of his right leg through the knee. Cody had no knee or tibia on the right side. They were uncertain about the problems with the left leg and would have to wait to see how it developed, as he got a little older. The first surgery would be a hip surgery to his right hip, which was dislocated, followed by 3 months in a hip spica cast. None of the orthopedic surgeries could begin though, until all the necessary medical surgeries were completed.

In January 2002, Cody again ended up in the ER at Children's Dallas because of abdominal concerns. He had an emergency surgery due to an adhesion caused by his November surgeries. Another 10 day stay in the hospital for both Cody and Tina, and Mike again juggled work, coming to the hospital to see Cody and Tina, and finding time to sleep.

The hospitalizations and surgeries continued on. Cody had numerous hospitalizations for infections and asthma/airways concerns, as well as for his surgeries. His next surgeries were in March 2002, on Tina's birthday, in April 2002 he had 3 surgeries, and in July 2002 he had two surgeries. In November 2002 Cody had a seizure with an unknown cause right before going to Children's Hospital Philadelphia for a second opinion on his legs. After coming home from that appointment, Cody had an MRI of his hips and legs to see what structures were present on each leg. This MRI showed that Cody was missing his tibia and knee on both the left and right side. Mike and Tina's choices were few - to leave him in a wheelchair with legs that would not function for him and wouldn't even allow him to sit normally or to have the portion of his legs from the knees down amputated to give him the opportunity to walk with prostheses. Bilateral amputation surgery was scheduled for January 2003. In December 2002, Cody caught RSV and again was in the hospital. He was released the day before Christmas, but this caused his surgery to be postponed until later in January. After Cody's amputation, he was trying to stand on his stumps later that day. Mike and Tina were so impressed by how he continued to deal so well with being in a hospital environment and keep his always-cheery disposition. Cody never lets anything bring him down. Two months after Cody had his surgery he was fitted with his first prosthetics and walking with assistance! In August 2003, Cody again had a surgery, and subsequently, spent about 6 weeks in the hospital between August and November due to airway and respiratory concerns. Again, Tina stayed in the hospital away from Mike, and Mike worked, came to visit and relieve Tina, while trying to find time to sleep. Due to Cody's continual illnesses that winter, Mike, Tina and Cody had to cancel their Christmas plans just a few days before Christmas and stay in Dallas. Since Cody had been born, they had not spent any holidays with Mike's family in California, which was very difficult. Luckily, Tina's mom and stepfather were there in Dallas for support and to spend the holidays with.

In June 2004, Cody was diagnosed with severe Osteopenia, putting him at an extremely high risk for a bone to break. Cody had to spend three days as an outpatient, every four months, getting infusion therapy to help re-generate his bones. He did this for a year and a half, and is now in re-mission.

Besides all of the above surgeries, Cody has also needed "regular kid" procedures such as tubes in his ears and gall bladder removal.

Through all of this, Cody has had the opportunity to participate in horseback riding, gymnastics, t-ball, soccer, swimming, running, golf, flying a plane, and many other adventures. Cody's limitless attitude will get him far in life and help him to reach his goals.

Cody now has three different sets of prostheses. One set he uses for everyday walking, another, stubbies, for playing low on the ground with his friends, and a third, running prostheses, he uses for his athletic endeavors. Cody is currently in 1st grade. He swims, plays sled hockey, runs and plays the piano. His hope is to one day represent the United States of America in the Olympics or Paralympics, as well as to run a marathon, and complete a triathlon. Cody competed this past summer at the University of Central Oklahoma Endeavor Games in the 60 meter and 100 meter races, earning gold medals in each event for his classification, as well as swam the 25 meter freestyle and backstroke, again winning gold for his age and classification. In October, Team Cody will be going to the San Diego Triathlon Challenge. Cody will be running in the kid's fun run, as well as running a portion of the 13.1 miles for our triathlon team. This December, Cody completed the last mile for Team Cody in the Dallas White Rock Marathon.

Cody is active in the community by speaking with others about his limb difference and promoting Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children and Challenged Athletes Foundation. His hope is that through his public appearances he will raise awareness of the abilities of children with limb differences, and raise funds to support programs that help Cody to reach his goals.

This is just a little of Cody's amazing story. There is so much more to it. It continues on a regular basis with the family having to endure multiple doctor's appointments and treatments to make Cody as independent as possible. Through it all, Cody remains an amazing spirit!

Double amputee loses legs, finds a cause

By Amy Chillag
CNN

CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee (CNN) -- An annual family boating trip to the Florida Keys took a bloody and life-changing turn for Jordan Thomas.


Noah Parton, 6, got prosthetics from foundation started by Jordan Thomas, right.

1 of 3 "It was a beautiful day, and we were going to go scuba diving," said Thomas, who was 16 during the 2005 trip.

But when he jumped into the water, the boat's wake dragged Thomas hard into sharp, whirling propellers.

He immediately knew what was about to happen.

"I looked down -- my black fins were gone, and all I saw was red just everywhere," said Thomas, an athletic teen who was captain of his high school's golf team. "But I had this unbelievable calmness over my body."

His father and mother, both doctors from Chattanooga, Tennessee, jumped into action.

"All of a sudden, my 16-year old, happy-go-lucky captain of the golf team was potentially dying," said Dr. Liz Kennedy-Thomas. Watch Thomas tell his story »

She worked to stanch the blood flow from her son's legs while his father rushed the boat to shore and fetched paramedics.

Thomas was rushed to a hospital, where he spent the next two weeks undergoing several surgeries on what was left of his legs and, along the way, discovering what would become his life's work.

While there, Thomas visited other amputees.

"I just remember seeing so many kids who didn't have parents, didn't have health care," he said. "I just knew that the future was grim for them."

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The top-of-the-line prosthetics Thomas was fitted with -- the ones that helped him return to the golf links -- cost about $24,000. He learned that many insurance plans cover only about $5,000.

That's especially tough on child amputees, who will outgrow several limbs before adulthood.

"I had no clue," he said. "It's one of those things, unless you're affected by it, you just don't know."

Thomas knew he was lucky. With a financially stable family, he'll always be able to afford good legs. He asked his family to give a donation to help others, but ultimately, with their support, the teenager launched a fundraising foundation to provide life-changing prosthetics to children in need.

"By the time we got home, we had bracelets -- all kinds of stuff," Kennedy-Thomas said. "The foundation was just sort of started by the time we got home."

The Jordan Thomas Foundation has raised more than $400,000 through bracelets, charity golf tournaments and cookouts. Some of that is paying for ongoing prosthetics for three children until they reach age 18.

One of them is Noah Parton.

The precocious 6-year-old was born with a congenital heart defect and had a complication with a tube inserted in his right leg, leading to an amputation above his knee.

His family's insurance would pay only for a "stubby," a wooden artificial leg without a bendable knee.

"His first bendable knee ... didn't have a certain number or something that would apply, and they refused to pay for it," said Noah's mother, Nancy Parton, who lives with her son about an hour north of Chattanooga, in Evensville, Tennessee.

Noah couldn't run and play with other children. And even day-to-day activities were tough.

"It was hard to put him in the car because his leg stuck out straight. And I'd have my seat up as far as it would go, and it would still hit the back of the seat," she said.

Thomas' foundation stepped in, buying Noah several knee devices -- a new one for each new leg he needs as he grows -- and a foot.

"He's so proud to show off how his knee bends," Thomas said. "And his foot has a split toe so he can wear sandals like his parents." Watch Noah show off his bendable knee prosthetic to Thomas »







Now, his mom says, Noah is unstoppable.

"He loves to climb stairs now; he tries to ride bicycles," she said. "You name it, he does it.

"Take him to the park [with] any other kid; he'll just blow you away."

While Thomas says his foundation still has a "mom-and-pop" feel, they plan to continue growing to help more children in need.

"If we provide them with prosthetics," said Thomas, "then that creates a whole gambit of opportunity for them to achieve whatever they want ... and I think they deserve that."

As Congress debates overhauling the nation's health care system, prosthetics are quietly getting some attention.

In May, Rep. Robert Andrews, a New Jersey Democrat, introduced the Prosthetic and Custom Orthotic Parity Act, which would require insurance companies to cover prosthetics at the same rate they do surgery.

"It's pretty simple," Andrews said. "Prosthetic devices are not cosmetic. You can't walk without one or you can't lift something without one, and I think one of the reasons people are so upset about the health care system in this country is they had hassles like this."









Seventeen states have passed similar laws, most recently Missouri. But amputee advocates say there needs to be a national law.

According to the Amputee Coalition of America, there are nearly 2 million amputees in the United States, and at least 25,000 of them are children.

Kendra Calhoun, president and CEO of the coalition, said that with more sweeping health care legislation taking all the attention, "our biggest hurdle [for a prosthetics law] right now is being heard."

Some insurance companies have said that premiums would go up for everyone if they were forced to cover prosthetics to the extent advocates want.

Advocates cite a study that they say shows it would cost beneficiaries about five cents per month.

Meanwhile, Thomas, a full-time college student in Charleston, South Carolina, spent the summer at home in Chattanooga working at a prosthetics and orthotics company.

"It is rewarding to actually make this stuff and work and then say, 'Now this guy's going to actually wear that,'" he said.

Thomas has no plans to slow down. He says he would like to become a voice for the amputee community and help many more children live "normal and happy, productive lives."


"When you're thrown into the situation, you just kind of adapt and you make the best of it," Thomas said. "There's nothing that I really cannot do."

Want to get involved? Check out the Jordan Thomas Foundation and see how to help.
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CNN's Allie Brown and Doug Gross contributed to this report.

Medical Watch: Child amputee an inspiration to family

11:52 AM CDT on Thursday, September 13, 2007

Meg Farris / Eyewitness News Medical Reporter

It was five years ago when Eyewitness News met Zachary Smith at Children's Hospital, just a few months shy of his first birthday – his parents were then faced with a critical decision. To save Zachary’s life, both his arms and both legs had to be amputated.



“(Doctors) said it was hour to hour, and if he would pull through the first 48 to 72 hours, his chances were better,” said Heidi Smith, Zachary’s mother.



Zachary’s lungs and kidneys had failed, his heart was beginning to do the same and his liver showed signs of problems as well.


“Zach was as sick an infant as I've ever treated in the now more than about 20 years that I've been at (Children’s Hospital) doing this,” said Dr. Judith Harris, a pediatric pulmonologist at LSU Health Sciences Center.


The problem was that staph bacteria, the kind that are resistant to antibiotics. It's normal for any of us to be exposed to staph bacteria on a daily basis, but an infant's immune system is just too week to fight it.






WWL-TV

Zachary's limbs had to be amputated when he developed life-threatening staph infection.

And now, Zachary just celebrated his sixth birthday, a thriving kindergartner at Bourg Elementary in Terrebonne Parish. His teachers have said he’s a remarkable child.


“I have been teaching 33 years and I have never met a child as inspirational as this child – ever,” said Yvonne White, a teacher at Bourg. “Yesterday afternoon I asked the children who was going to help me clean the floor. He was the first one up, picked up all the trash off the floor; just incredible.”


Zachary’s motto has been, ‘I can do anything.’ He’d rather not get any help from adults or classmates.


“I want to be telling them, ‘I don't need help, but I don't need help, but thank you,’” Zachary said.


It’s an attitude—part of Zachary’s character—his parents have worked hard to develop.


“It's just tough love that’s the only thing you can do to make sure he's going to be independent…and sometimes it's hard. Sometimes you want to do stuff for him,” said Eric Smith, Zachary’s father.


On Wednesday, Zachary got the ultimate ride to school as part of the “Grant-A-Wish” program from the Louisiana State Police Troop C. He and his dad were taken to school in a helicopter.


Students at Bourg Elementary were waiting on campus for Zachary’s celebrity-style arrival.


“There was not a dry eye for any teacher here, it was such a wonderful thing,” said Mary Justice, Bourg Elementary Principal.


State Trooper Gilbert Dardar said moments like these make his job worthwhile.


“It just brings tears to your eyes,” Dardar said. “And when we landed the helicopter and we saw his mom…coming up to the helicopter and she's crying.”






WWL-TV

Zachary has developed an "I can do it" mentality during his short life.

Zachary admitted to being scarred at first when the helicopter took off, but said later, “It was just like a big plane.”


Now a family of five, Heidi remembers a time when they grieved the loss of Zachary's limbs, but were ever so grateful for the life that doctors saved.


And when she and her husband look at this productive, strong-willed, highly motivated and intelligent person, they said the fears they once had for his future disappear.


“He’s a blessing, he's an inspiration,” his mother said. “He makes you thankful for the simple things that we take for granted. Even though he can do them all, he has to put forth more effort to do them.”


The Troop C “Grant-A-Wish” program surprised the Smith family with another gift: they’re sending them to Disney World over the holidays.

Fort Bragg Soldier becomes the first amputee to complete Jumpmaster Course

Photo credit Sgt. 1st Class Jason Baker



Sgt. 1st Class Mike Fairfax, left, a Special Forces intelligence sergeant with Operations Detachment, 3rd Special Forces Group, inspects a Soldier's parachute while performing duties as a safety aboard an aircraft over a drop zone above Raeford, N.C.

FORT BRAGG, N.C. - For most Soldiers, when they join the Army there are a set of schools they set their eyes on as goals to complete. Schools like, Air Assault, Ranger and Pathfinder. For any airborne qualified noncommissioned officer, the natural goal would be the Jumpmaster Course.

For one NCO achieving this goal faced more than just a minor set back; but Sgt. 1st Class John (Mike) Fairfax, Special Forces Intelligence NCO, Headquarters Support Company, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), became the first amputee Soldier to successfully complete the Jumpmaster Course, Nov. 15, 2008, and performed his first duty Dec. 3, 2008.

For Fairfax, this journey began the summer of 2005 in a remote region of Afghanistan when his truck was struck by an improvised explosive device.

In the attack he suffered a severe injury to his right leg, as well as injuries to his right eye and left lung. His team's medic, Sgt. 1st Class Derrick Coyme, quickly went to work to stop the massive bleeding caused by the severed femoral artery.

Just before losing consciousness Fairfax faced the realistic possibility he may not survive the attack, because of his heavy loss of blood and the team's remote location.

Fortunately, he survived, and his next memory is waking to the voice of his wife at his bedside in the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Fairfax knew he was not in the best condition, but felt committed to recovering from his injuries.

"It never crossed my mind that I wouldn't get back to a team," said Farifax. "My only goal was to get better and continue on with business as usual."

Initially, Fairfax still had his right leg, through several surgeries and battles with infection, doctors were able to save it and he began the long road of rehabilitation.

December of that same year, Fairfax returned to the group and his leadership gave him one mission: "go get better."

By June 2006 Fairfax was back to work, but spent over a year struggling with the pain of the injured leg. After several surgeries to repair the leg to make it more functional and reduce the pain had failed, a friend and fellow amputee joked that he should just cut the leg off.

Fairfax gave the option serious consideration. After consulting several doctors and amputee Soldiers, he decided to go through with the amputation.

A year prior to the day of his graduation from the Jumpmaster Course, he had the operation to remove his right leg. The next year would be spent dealing with a cycle of rehabilitation and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections.

Each time the MRSA would come back he was forced to remain off the prosthetic.

Once healed, he would have to rebuild the muscle strength to walk in the socket again. When it was time for the Jumpmaster Course, it had only been three weeks since his last bout with a MRSA infection and his return to using the prosthetic leg.

"Only being in the socket three weeks really increased the physical demand," said Fairfax. "It takes time to build up the hip flexors and other muscles. I was pretty sore each night during the course."

The majority of the course focuses on the jumpmaster personnel inspection. The sequence requires the jumpmaster to squat or bend down to visually inspect the jumper's equipment. Most jumpmasters will go into a deep squat during this portion as, going to a knee will take more time to get up and continuing the inspection.

During the final test students are required to properly inspect three jumpers and in five minutes find all deficiencies and conduct the inspection in the exact inspection sequence. For Fairfax his only option was to drop to a knee.

For fellow students in the course this would be the only clue that he was missing a leg. "Most guys saw him kind of limping around, but didn't know he was missing a leg," said the noncommissioned officer in charge during the course, Master Sgt. David West, from 2nd Bn., 3rd SFG.

"It wasn't until our first rotation in the (JMPI) circle and he dropped down on the concrete slab. It made such a loud sound all the guys turned and looked. The crack was so loud it sounded like rounds were dropping in. One guy asked him 'did that hurt' and he responded, "no, I don't have a knee."

Though disadvantaged, there were no changes made to the course's standards. The jumpmaster is typically one of the U.S. Army's more challenging schools; the standards for success are purposefully strict. A typical course will see a 50 percent pass/fail rate.

"Before the start of the course I told myself, failure is not an option," said Fairfax. "I knew I would be paving the way for other amputees to go through the course and I didn't want this to be something they couldn't do." Not only did his success provide fellow amputees with inspiration, but fellow Green Berets as well.

"The majority of the guys and all of the instructors were impressed," said West. "Most were saying to ourselves, 'holy smokes, would I be able to do that?' To do what he did with a prosthetic leg is a very real inspiration. These are the kind of guys you want in SF. The guys who are going to find a way to get things done, no matter what the circumstances are they will accomplish the task."

West added that this is the kind of Soldier Fairfax has always been. "When you wear an SF tab, you hold yourself to a higher standard," said Fairfax. "If this can give another guy a glimmer of hope, then that's a good thing. Sometimes you need someone to look up to ... someone to look to when you're down."

Fairfax expressed gratitude toward his command for supporting him through his recovery and providing him a way to still be a contributing member of the group.

"It has always been one of my goals," said Fairfax. "If I can't be on a team, at least I can be a productive Soldier in the group." Just as any good Soldier does, Fairfax has set his eye on more training and goals for the future. "I don't want this to be the last thing I do," he concluded.

April Holmes--The Fastest Amputee in the World

Sport: Track and Field
Residence: Somerdale, New Jersey
April Holmes went from an all-star high school and college athlete to a promising Paralympian. Best known for her deep faith and resilience, April is active in her church and uses her faith and experiences to uplift those who, like her, have acquired their disability through tragedy.
A high school 400-meter champion, Holmes later earned multiple NCAA All-American honors as a sprinter at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, VA. When she lost her leg in a train accident in 2001, she didn’t despair about her new situation.
Since her accident, April has made remarkable strides as both an athlete and advocate for individuals with disabilities. A little more than a year after her accident, April was back on the track in her debut Paralympic competition: Disabled Sport USA’s “International Challenge.” Not only did she win the 100-meters, but her time qualified her to the International Paralympic Committee’s World Championships, which were held later that summer in Lillie, France. In France, she won a silver medal in the 100m and set an American record of 14.12 seconds for her classification.




In January, 2003, April was featured in a music video for rapper Shaggy’s “Strength of a Woman,” which aired on music stations across the United States and overseas. The following year, at the 2004 Summer Paralympic Games of Athens, April won a bronze medal in the women’s long jump competition. In addition, she set new world records in her classification in the 100m (13.13 seconds), and 200m (27.51 seconds). Her latest feats include breaking her own world records in the 100m and 200m at the 2006 U.S. Paralympics Track & Field National Championships in Atlanta, GA. Also in 2006, April won the gold medal in the 100m and 200m and the bronze medal in the long jump at the IPC World Championships in Assen, The Netherlands. Finally in 2007, April won the silver medal in the 100m at the Parapan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, China, April won the gold medal in the 100m.




Off the track, she has created the April Holmes Foundation to further opportunities for individuals with physical and developmental disabilities.
April already has her sights set on the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, China. Knowing April’s strength, stamina and resilience, she is surely an athlete whose name you will continue to hear leading up to the 2008 Paralympic Games.
Through her determination, winning spirit and accomplishments, April embodies The Hartford’s belief that the sky’s the limit when we focus on an individual’s abilities, instead of on his or her perceived physical limitations.