The first story in this week’s roundup really captures the spirit of Limb Loss Awareness Month. Quick version: A right leg amputee named Kalob Harrison was shooting the breeze with his able-bodied auto mechanic, and the mechanic asked why Harrison didn’t use a prosthesis. That led to a connection with another amputee in town, James Dixon, who helped Harrison get off crutches and into a prosthesis for the first time in nearly a decade. Read the whole heart-warming thing in the Herald Bulletin out of Anderson, Indiana.
More good news:
We keep an eye our hometown baseball team via MLB.tv, and one of the network’s early-season ads includes a quick glimpse of amputee catcher Luke Terry, a high school player from Tennessee. He flashes by at about the 0:15 mark. This young man had a moment of national fame a few years ago.
Angel City Sports wants your ideas for virtual events to include in its upcoming Summer Series. More info here; add your suggestions at this link.
The American Heart Association announced an ambitious goal to reduce amputations resulting from peripheral artery disease by 20 percent over the next decade. Says one author of the AHA’s paper: “Most of the public has no idea what PAD is, or even that a primary care physician should be looking at their feet at every visit.”
Bionics for Everyone put together a sizzle reel of videos where folks flash their kitchen skills with the aid of advanced upper-limb devices such as Taska, bebionic, Hero Arm, etc. Pretty good menu, too: scrambled eggs, pancakes, fruit salad, pot pie.
The COVID-caused spike in amputations in the United States (as noted in our current issue) is also being seen in Italy. A study of Italian diabetic patients showed that amputation rates doubled in 2020 over 2019 due to the difficulty in accessing routine care during the pandemic.
The United States Olympic and Paralympic Museum is in the running for another USA Today readers’ choice honor. Last year it was named Best New Travel Attraction. Now it’s up for Best New Museum of 2021. Cast your vote here.
How are they celebrating Limb Loss Awareness Month in Uganda? By walking 70 kilometers (about 40 miles) in one day to raise money for the Prosthetics Accessibility Fund.
Amplified, the magazine of Limbs 4 Life (Australia’s answer to the Amputee Coalition), has put out its first 2021 edition. Check it out for articles about amputee yoga, bionic prostheses, recovering from sepsis, and more.
The 2021 Neuromaker Creative STEM Challenge is underway. From now through late June, middle school and high school teams from across the country will be designing bionic solutions for adaptive challenges and building prototypes of their technology. There’s $10,000 in prize money at stake; still plenty of time to enter. Here’s more info.