amputation

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Warren Macdonald knows a LOT about motivation. He famously (see appearances on Oprah, Larry King Live, Vicki Gabereau, The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos, etc) survived a harrowing, agonizing ordeal while mountain climbing, when he was trapped beneath a one-ton boulder in a freak rock fall. Macdonald’s test of will lasted two full days before a helicopter arrived. He was rescued, but the accident cost him both legs.

Ten months after becoming a double above-knee amputee, Macdonald, who currently lives in Vancouver and travels worldwide as a professional speaker, climbed Tasmania’s Cradle Mountain “using a modified wheelchair and the seat of his pants.”

A year later, he traveled through some of the most inhospitable terrain in Australia and climbed Federation Peak.

In winter ‘03, he became the first double above-knee amputee to reach the summit of Africa’s tallest peak, Mt Kilimanjaro (19,222ft).

And more recently, in a mind-bogglingly punishing climb that required more than 2800 pull-ups over 4 days, he made an ascent of America’s tallest cliff face, El Capitan.

He is also the only known above knee amputee to make an ascent of Canada’s landmark frozen waterfall, the 600 ft “Weeping Wall“ in Alberta.

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For more, visit…

warren-macdonald.com
twitter.com/warrenmacdonald
youtube.com/warrenmacdonald
facebook.com/warrenmacdonaldunlimited

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Quoting Laura June, via Engadget:

Researchers in Italy and Sweden have spent the last ten years developing what they call the “Smart Hand,” a prosthetic hand which enables feeling in its fingertips. The hand—which was recently wired up to a test patient through a surgical procedure—has four motors and forty sensors which are linked directly to the brain.

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Here’s the video:

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From the WheresLulu.com blog:

“Don’t tell Baxter Humby he’s not a sexy mofo. He’ll totally kick your ass! Known as “The One Arm Bandit”, Baxter (that’s Mr. Humby to you) is the current International Muay Thai Council World Super Welterweight Champion, whew! So what does all that mean?! It basically means he could drop you flat on your back so fast, you won’t even know what hit you. No worries, let me remind you. It was Baxter, “The One Arm Bandit.” The only man in the world to ever win world titles with only one hand. You’d be hard press to go out and find a boxer, kickboxer, or anyone who wouldn’t see missing half a limb as a huge freakin’ disadvantage. Try telling Mr. Humby that…on second thought don’t. He might kick your teeth in.”

8-minute film + extended bio…after the jump!

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World-record-setting Paralympian sprinter Aimee Mullins, as you know from our last post, is a bilateral amputee—i.e. both of her legs were amputated below the knee. She learned to walk on prosthetics, then to run.

Aimee said some truly tremendous things during her TED Talk.

But this quote in particular, this hilarious and delicious nugget of a sound byte, is so off-the-wall funny that it bears repeating…

“From an identity standpoint, what does it mean to have a disability?
Pamela Anderson has more prosthetic in her body than I do.
Nobody calls her disabled.”

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Another time, being interviewed by Mavian Arocha for Aventura Magazine, Aimee was asked “What quality do you lack that you wish you could attain and embrace?” Not missing a beat, Aimee ran with the generic line of questioning and dryly responded: “Besides being able to bend my ankles? Jeez, this is hard.”

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In this wonderful TED video, filmed in February ‘09, Aimee Mullins talks about her prosthetic legs—she’s got a dozen amazing pairs—and the superpowers they grant her: speed, beauty, an extra 6 inches of height … Quite simply, she redefines what the body can be. [via]

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What to watch next:
TED98 – Aimee Mullins on running

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Visit AimeeMullins.com

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BBC News:

A 48-year-old Thai elephant has been fitted with a permanent artificial leg, 10 years after losing a limb from treading on a land mine.

Motola was measured up at an elephant hospital on Saturday before experts made the leg and fitted it on Sunday.

The elephant had been walking with the help of a temporary artificial leg made of canvas, the Associated Press news agency reports.

A much younger elephant at the same hospital already has a false leg.

Motola was injured in 1999 while working at a logging camp along the Thai-Burmese border. Her front left foot was so badly damaged it had to be amputated.

Her permanent leg was made by the Prostheses Foundation.

Motola and a three-year-old elephant, Mosha, have both been cared for by an elephant hospital run by the Friends of the Asian Elephant (FAE).

Mosha, who is three, lost part of her right front leg as a seven-month-old. Because Mosha is growing fast, she has already outgrown three of her prosthetic limbs.

Thailand’s borders with Burma and Cambodia are littered with unexploded landmines, the result of decades of conflict.

The FAE says many elephants, often domesticated ones used in the logging trade, are injured by mines every year as they work in remote forests close to the borders.

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Read related news, watch video of Motola

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Jason Koger is a loving husband to his wife Jenny and father to his beautiful girls Billie Grace and Cambell Leigh. Anyone who has ever come in contact with Jason knows what a wonderful, kind and caring person he is (and that he gets it from his upbringing). He is the type of person that would give you the shirt off his back and expect nothing in return.

On March 1, 2008 Jason was involved in a horrible accident in which he was electrocuted by a down power line. Both of Jason’s arms were amputated below the elbow and he’s been facing the long road to recovery.

In ordinary circumstances, this might seem like a hopeless cause, but not in Jason’s case. He is a fighter with the drive and determination to overcome this obstacle, and he will win.

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Watch Jason’s commercial for Superior O&P

Read Jason and Jenny’s detailed journal

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Never has the world seen a pony quite like Molly…

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HAROLD RUSSELL: LOST BOTH HANDS BUT WON TWO OSCARS

Nova Scotia’s Double Oscar Winner

by Bruce Nunn

And now please welcome the actor from Nova Scotia who set an all-time record at Hollywood’s famous Academy Awards ceremony. He was awarded not one but two golden Oscar statuettes for the same movie role. Two for one! And it was a first. Plus, his performance in The Best Years of Our Lives was his first acting experience and, as a handicapped war veteran, he made his motion picture debut without hands. He was the amazing Harold Russell. In 2002 he passed away in his late eighties. But, my, what a life he had lived.

“I lost both my hands in an explosion when I was with the airborne troops,” he told me in a telephone interview from Boston back in 1996. TNT exploded in Click to continue »