Reflection Essay: Sara McDermott

The Importance of Affordable Prostheses

When I was researching an organization to work with for my service scholar project, one of the administrators at Ensworth, who knew about my interest in biomechanics, suggested that I spend some time at the organization his friend worked at, called Amputee Blade Runners. As they work specifically with children and athletes to help them become more active, I was really excited about being able to combine my mechanical interests with spending time with patients and getting to know them beyond simply a medical context. On my first day, I met a young girl, about eleven years old, who was coming in for a refitting since she had grown considerably since her last visit and her prosthesis no longer fit her. However, she was not alone, her family had recently bought a puppy who, like her, needed a prosthesis as she had been born with a limb difference on her left foreleg Watching the two get fitted for matching prostheses with the same design made me instantly recognize I was in the right place.

I got to experience many parts of the prosthesis-making process that summer; I went to fundraisers where I met numerous amputees with different stories of how they got to where they are; I conducted interviews with the people applying for grants from the organization to make their prostheses affordable, and I spent time in the shop where they mold and make the prostheses, even getting to help laminate one of the sockets. No matter what role I was in, I got to experience some part of the process, from casting a limb to watching the person walk out the door on their own for the first time in months However, as the only teenager in the office, my primary role over the summer was to ensure the children felt comfortable throughout their time in the office. Summer is the best time for children to come and get fitted for prostheses as they do not have to worry about missing school, so I was able to connect with several amazing people who are very close to my own age. One boy in particular stuck out to me, a 6-year-old bilateral amputee (both below the knee), who refused to cooperate with any of the adults at the organization. Although it wasn’t his first time in the office, he had had surgery since his last visit and because it was a painful procedure, he had begun to associate anything medical-related with pain, including doctors, even if nothing physically hurt. As the only non-doctor, I was the only person he didn’t look at and immediately started crying The doctors had me hang out with him for a while, just chatting about books and his family before I helped him put on his new prostheses and encouraged him to try walking. It took some games, like trying to step on my toes, but he slowly gained confidence, shifting from fully depending on the double bars around the room to occasionally taking off a hand. He still used a walker to leave and then returned home the following day so I didn’t see him again, but he made me truly realize the impact that access to custom, high-quality prosthetics has on people’s lives and why it is so crucial that we as a community find a way to make such technology available to a broader range of amputees across the country.