An Amputee’s Presentations Encourage Others to Celebrate Differences

Image courtesy of Josh Lorimer.
Josh and Sharman Lorimer work at Idaho Orthotics and Prosthetics (Idaho O&P), Meridian; he is a certified prosthetic assistant, and she is a certified mastectomy fitter and compression therapist. But that’s just the beginning of what this dynamic duo does.
About eight years ago, their daughters wanted to take Josh to school to show off his prosthetic leg during show-and-tell. Since then, talking to kids about limb difference—and about the differences we all have—has become a recurring gig for Josh.
Sharman says the free presentations stem in part from the values Josh learned in childhood, which he passed along to his children. Josh’s right leg was amputated before he was old enough to walk, and his mother did not shy away from questions that others had about his limb loss. She instilled that openness in her son.
“His mother had a lot to do with Josh’s attitude,” Sharman explains. “When our daughters were young, they were in classes with kids with disabilities, and one of the values Josh has is that you embrace your differences and you welcome questions.”

Sharman helps Josh with his presentations, bringing his props and sometimes arranging the events. They believe Josh’s talks give everyone, including people with disabilities, a different perspective on the world of prosthetics and disabilities.
As an example, Sharman recalls the reaction from a boy in a wheelchair who attended a presentation that Josh did when the Lorimer girls were young.
“The next day, [the boy] came to school with his wheelchair totally decked out,” she says. “Sometimes injuries like this take away some freedom, but you forget the freedom it can give you, if you choose to look at it that way.”
In addition to inspiring schoolchildren, another way Josh helps celebrate limb differences is designing unusual looks for prostheses at Idaho O&P. For example, he and his co-workers created a prosthesis with horse imagery for a horse enthusiast, and for a photography lover they did one with old photographs.
For another customer, they made an especially flamboyant leg. While many older people Josh has worked with prefer a flesh-tone design, one 80-year-old woman’s design request reminded him not to presume to know what someone will want—and that reveling in one’s uniqueness knows no age limit.
“We did a prosthesis that had flames and a skull on it for her,” he says. “We do these at no extra charge. Whatever is in your personal life that you want your prosthesis to reflect, we’ll do it.”

Image courtesy of
Josh Lorimer.
Josh also designed a unique prosthesis for himself: a musical leg. The current iteration is Bluetooth-enabled; an earlier version of Josh’s “RockitSocket” can be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml3jBbzo 5hU&feature=youtu.be.
Many people were thrilled by Josh’s musical prosthesis, but one group important to the Lorimers was left out of the fun—their friends with hearing loss. So Josh installed LED lights in the leg that were synchronized to the music so their friends can also see the beat of the song that’s playing.
Such consideration seems to be second nature for the Lorimers. And just as they have taught their daughters to accept differences of all kinds, they continue to look for ways to raise awareness of limb differences and other differences. Sharman says Josh would welcome the opportunity to do more talks for broader audiences.
“It’s fun for people, even adults, to see this side of it, and it’s an opportunity to change people’s lives,” she says.
TIPS FOR RESPONDING TO NEGATIVITY
People with limb difference can face negativity in many forms, from forward questions to unfounded doubts about their capabilities. Here are ways Josh Lorimer, Susan Fleming, and Chris Wiltse deal with such adversity.
DIVERT NEGATIVITY WITH HUMOR.
Wiltse finds that having a sense of humor helps him to recognize that people aren’t necessarily being negative or rude if they ask personal questions about his amputation. “People are curious, and I want to help answer their questions so they’ll have an understanding of what I’m going through,” he says.
So he tries to put people at ease with his humor. Joking about his prosthesis is one way he does so. As he says, “I tell people all the time, ‘Don’t pull my leg. You’ll rip it off if you pull too hard.’”
CHANGE COURSE.
If obstacles are placed in your way, it may be easier to take a different path. As Fleming notes about the nursing program that declined her application, “I was on the wrong road, and I just needed to go to a school that would accept me.” But she also observes that there are laws in place now to protect people with disabilities, which offer legal options for people who are turned down for a school program or job solely because of a limb difference.
PREEMPT NEGATIVITY WITH OPENNESS.
Lorimer’s colorful, musical leg draws attention to his prosthesis. He says that efforts to hide a limb difference may make others uncomfortable, which could cause them to be abrupt or impolite in a way they normally might not be. He tries to wear shorts year-round to put people at ease about approaching him.
DON’T DREAD QUESTIONS, INVITE THEM.
Lorimer welcomes questions. As his wife, Sharman, says, “With his leg and his visits to the schools, he encourages people to ask questions. That is how we feel comfortable as a community with any disability—by learning about our differences and about each other.”
EMPHASIZE DIVERSITY.
As the Lorimer family’s experiences demonstrate, positives can be found in differences, whether they are physical, cultural, or something else. If someone focuses negatively on your limb difference, maybe reminding them of the diversity we all share will help them appreciate your differences, too.
MORE THAN A JOB: AMPUTEES CHOOSE CAREERS THAT IMPACT LIVES
Many people with limb loss are employed in healthcare and related fields where their work serves people with limb loss or other disabilities. Josh Lorimer, CPA, Susan Fleming, PhD, RN, CNS, NE, and Chris Wiltse are three examples.
In 2008, after being laid off from a 13-year career in another field, Lorimer decided to pursue something he had always wanted to do. After interning with his prosthetist, Josh became a certified prosthetic assistant in 2011. (His current boss offered Lorimer a job upon seeing a YouTube video of his prosthesis customized with an MP3 dock.)

As a prosthetic technician, Lorimer enjoys assisting other people with limb loss and likes to help them jazz up their prostheses: “I always tell people, if you have to have one of these, you might as well have fun with it.”
Fleming has more than 35 years of experience as a nurse and educator. From an early age, she wanted to be a nurse like her great-grandmother, who was a midwife and nurse in frontier Seattle in the early 1900s.
Fleming was born without her left hand, but in high school she became a nurse’s aide, winning praise from the doctors and nurses with whom she worked. However, the first nursing program she applied to turned her down because the administrators and instructors feared that, because of her limb difference, Fleming would endanger patients. So she applied to a more broad-minded program and became a registered nurse (RN) in 1983. Two decades later, she had earned her bachelor of science in nursing, master of nursing, and doctoral degrees.
Fleming is now an assistant professor at Seattle University. She also advocates for nursing students with disabilities and is regularly consulted by various university administrations and faculty on developing a learning environment that is responsive to the needs of nursing students with disabilities.
Wiltse has always loved sports and the outdoors. Hiking, fishing, wrestling—the 20-year-old Spokane native has been pursuing athletic activities since he was a kid. And ever since he was little, he has been breaking his prostheses.
Wiltse was born with fibular hemimelia, meaning his fibula was incomplete. As a result, his leg was amputated above the ankle when he was 9 months old. When he was a year old, he received his first prosthesis and he has been frustrated with their fragility almost ever since.
His desire to create a durable prosthesis better suited to his active lifestyle ultimately led him to enroll in the O&P Technician Training Program at Spokane Falls Community College.
“I just want to build a better leg for people like me, who like to be outside doing work and activities,” he says.
By Scott McNutt