source GAIA package: Sx_MilitaryTimes_M6201210205140311_5675.zip Origin key: Sx_MilitaryTimes_M6201210205140311 imported at Fri Jan 8 18:18:06 2016
Staff Sgt. Billy Costello lost his right leg to an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan last fall, but the list of sports he’s pursuing this year might make a person with both legs dizzy: Running, snowboarding, surfing and scuba diving.<\/p>
“They say the technology’s there to get you back to where you used to be,” said Costello, 30, of 3rd Special Forces Group. “It’s very possible. You just have to make calls and see who’s done what already.”<\/p>
Costello, an above-the-knee amputee at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, plans to do all this with a new generation of artificial leg that is powered by its own internal battery and intuits a user’s movements using an onboard computer.<\/p>
Dr. Charles Scoville, chief of amputee services in the orthopedics and rehabilitation department, said such prosthetics have been tested since 2009 and have recently become available for most amputees there, affording them more mobility and less strain on muscles and joints.<\/p>
“It’s only been in the last six months that we’ve really started to fit it this way,” Scoville said. “We’re now incorporating it as part of our standard of care versus just seeing how it works.”<\/p>
The patients are employing a mix of artificial limbs \u2014 the Power Knee by Ossur, the X2 and X3 microprocessor knees by Otto Bock and a powered ankle by BiOM \u2014 which all function using similar principles.<\/p>
The X2 and X3 use a combination of gyroscopes, accelerators and hydraulics to provide the knee with greater stability, mobility and versatility by recognizing actions, officials said. The sensors can intuit when the wearer wants to step over an object or walk up and down stairs or ramps.<\/p>
In late April, when the hospital invited journalists to meet recipients of this type of below-the-waist prosthetic, an elevator got stuck during the visit. As a group of doctors, journalists and two Marine amputees climbed a flight of stairs; the Marines moved at only a slightly slower pace.<\/p>
The advances are driven by a growing number of amputees among service members. The military has treated 1,453 patients with major limb loss, more than two-thirds of them at Walter Reed, officials said.<\/p>
Of those, roughly 300 have returned to active duty, and 53 have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan with prosthetics.<\/p>
At Walter Reed, more than 200 patients are fitted with prosthetic limbs each month.<\/p>
“Prior to the war, if you had an amputation, you were very quickly discharged because you were found unfit for duty, and your care was handled on the civilian side,” Scoville said. “We’ve now changed that and said these guys can contribute a lot.”<\/p>
Costello, an intern at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., was soon to be discharged. He said he plans to enter the National Guard when he returns to North Carolina.<\/p>
“I still want to support the guys,” he said, adding that he would deploy if his medical condition allows it and that he would not want to be a “liability.”<\/p>
Since January, Walter Reed has been testing combinations of prosthetics built by separate manufacturers.<\/p>
Marine Cpl. Rory Hamill, 23, who lost his right leg to an IED in Afghanistan, was wearing a BiOm ankle and an Ossur knee together with no complaints.<\/p>
“They gave me this and said, ‘Walk, just imagine walking as if your leg was still there,’ and it was ready to go,” he said. “In two, three weeks, I dropped the crutches.”<\/p>
Hamill had tried a less advanced prosthetic leg at first, but it was tough going.<\/p>
“I had to put in all the work, and at the end of the day, I was really sore. But this, it powers me through everything and I’m not tired,” he said of his prosthetics.<\/p>
A day after being fitted for prosthetics on both legs, Marine Cpl. Garrett Carnes rose from his wheelchair and was walking up and down a ramp at the hospital, albeit slowly and using parallel handrails.<\/p>
Carnes, 22, was looking forward to retiring from the Marines, going to college, and maybe getting to play some football. He had posted a video of himself walking on Facebook, and found the positive feedback “motivating.”<\/p>
“Mentally it feels great to get back on my feet. Physically, it still feels awkward,” said Carnes, of 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines. “I imagine this is what a baby feels like when he first gets up on his feet.”<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prosthetic technology continues to improve<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":93206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[15,88],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1908],"class_list":["post-92475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-your-military"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"JKK567GYO5GVJMX4CC7UXPORGE","arc_canonical_url":"\/2013\/03\/27\/prosthetic-technology-continues-to-improve\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n