Speaking of prosthetics

One of my former co-workers died this week, and I just wanted to take a moment to say what a pleasure and honour it was to work with him. His name was Wayne Cottle, and he was a prosthetist who made artificial limbs for children, both in our practice at the hospital, and on mission trips to Guatemala. I was so sorry to hear that he'd died. I'm no fan of funerals, but I would have attended his, but they're having a private service for family and close friends. Requiescat in pace, Wayne.

Bringing Help and Hope to Guatemala

Working to change a life

Here's something kind of uplifting

3 1/2 years ago I was hit by a car and was stuck at home for three months with a broken ankle. I was hopping on one leg with a walker (I couldn't manage crutches at all, given that I have no upper body strength), and rented a fold-up manual wheelchair for going to doctors' visits and to get around a little better. It's amazing how much it helped my mobility. Inside my apartment, it only worked in the living, dining room, and kitchen (although I knocked a little paint off the doorway getting from the the second to last one). I couldn't get down the hallway and into the bedroom, and certainly couldn't get into the bathroom, where the door was actually too narrow for the walker without moving it back and forth, BUT it taught me a valuable lesson about mobility and access, a lesson I appreciate even more because I work in a pediatric orthopaedic hospital where many kids use walkers and wheelchairs.

Amputee Tortoise Gets Moving With Wheels

A plucky female tortoise is winning the hearts of the Indian public as it races around its zoo enclosure on an improvised set of wheels. The animal lost its front right leg in a mongoose attack, and zookeepers added the wheels in a short operation after they noticed the animal couldn't move around and reach its food

Awwww....

Calf With Prosthetic Legs To Star In Children's Book

A calf who lost its back legs to frostbite has received prosthetic legs, thanks to its owner.

Hero the calf arrived back home in Virginia after getting two prosthetic legs from Texas A&M's veterinary school, who performed the surgery and created their first large animal prosthetics.

"Hero is defying all odds. Everyone said he would never make it this far and I'm the only one who said he will and I'm pretty proud of him," said owner Kitty Martin.

But first, here's a bit of weird news

Pa. mistrial declared when prosthetic eye pops out

An assault trial over a fight that cost a man his left eye ended in a mistrial Wednesday when his prosthetic eye popped out as he was testifying, startling jurors.

John Huttick was weeping on the witness stand in Common Pleas Court as he testified about the impact of losing his eye in the August 2011 fight in the parking lot of a bar called the New Princeton Tavern, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported (http://bit.ly/XPaiAb).

Suddenly, the $3,000 prosthetic blue eye popped out. Huttick caught it and cried out as two jurors gasped and started to rise. "I couldn't believe it just came out," Huttick said.

Judge Robert Coleman, who called it an "unfortunate, unforeseen incident," granted a mistrial motion by defense attorney Eileen Hurley. He scheduled a new trial for March 4.

I have a friend who is totally blasé about bodily fluids and other nasty things, but is grossed out by various things to do with the eye, including prostheses. I wonder what his response as a juror would have been?

I wouldn't quite go that far, but I'm used to Cthulhoid horrors

I found it a little odd, but interesting. Now if the arm takes over your mind, all bets are off. The nice thing about it is that the mechanism is fairly simple and therefore not as expensive as some. But it might unnerve those with low sanity points. :)

Tentacle-Like Prosthetic Arm Will Haunt Your Dreams

Kaylene Kau’s prosthetic arm is either a sweet modern update of the old-fashioned pirate’s hook, or a terrifying device that will turn its wearer into a Cthuloid-human mongrel. I favor the former, if only because I want to sleep at night.

The prosthesis is not designed to be a prehensile limb, but instead it’s an assistive appendage for the good arm. A simple motor drives two cables inside the tentacle, and the wearer controls it with a pair of switches on the upper section. Just put the “arm” in place, hit the switch and it curls around whatever you might want to carry. The other switch unfurls the arm.

Helping a kitty walk and jump again, through cutting-edge technology

Unlike a person, a cat isn't able to run about on a removable prosthetic--it would come off too easily. So this surgeon gave Oscar, a cat who'd lost his two hind legs in a combine accident, a second chance at life by implanting prosthetics into his limbs.

More on the uphill battle amputees will face in Haiti--and the people who are trying to help them

Haiti amputees face dire quest for prosthetics: Prosthetics groups promise help in a land where disability can mean death

I'm intrigued by this:

An engineering professor, Gonzalez has created a durable, easy-to-make artificial leg that is fashioned of hard plastic and can be repaired with nuts and bolts from a hardware store. It costs about $15 to make, compared to about $2,000 for the cheapest leg in the U.S., and it can withstand the rugged geography and the dirt, heat and humidity of a place like Haiti.

“You have to have a knee that’s pretty robust,” says Gonzalez, who already operates programs in Sierra Leone, Bangladesh and Senegal.

Prosthetic legs in America can cost upwards to $4,000. For a child, legs must be made over time as he or she grows. I read somewhere that the average wage for a Haitian is about $1 per day. They will need these groups to help the estimated 4,000 amputees who were fortunate not to lose their lives, but face the possibility of being abandoned as pariahs or burdens in their community.