Rain Man
09-08-2003, 15:41
Just ran across this story today (8 Sept 03) on Yahoo.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=519&e=4&u=/ap/20030908/ap_on_re_us/exp_bionic_hiker
This guy has his own web site at:
http://onelegwonder.faithweb.com/
I can only wish him the best!!!
============
2,168-Mile Trail Awaits 'Bionic' Hiker
Mon Sep 8,10:16 AM ET
Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!
By DUNCAN MANSFIELD, Associated Press Writer
WASHBURN, Tenn. - Scott Rogers, whose daily journey begins with a single step on a bionic leg, is preparing for a hike up the 2,168-mile Appalachian Trail.
Photo
AP Photo
"I have been told I can't do it, that I won't make it. But how do you know?" the 34-year-old says.
Rogers hikes with the help of the "C-Leg" — a prosthetic powered by a battery, driven by hydraulics and controlled by microprocessors that monitor his movement 50 times a second to create a natural, stable gait.
The affable Georgia native, whose Web and e-mail addresses say "onelegwonder," finished a grueling seven-day, 65-mile practice hike on the Laurel Highlands Trail in Pennsylvania.
Next April, he plans to start a seven-month trip along the Appalachian Trail, walking from Georgia to Maine. "If I fail at it," he says, "at least I tried."
Rogers lost his left leg below the knee in 1998 when he accidentally shot himself while hunting a snake. He says the accident, unexpectedly, made him stronger.
"What can hurt worse than being shot by a shotgun and surviving?" he asks.
With only one leg, he learned to water ski, bought an ultralight aircraft and returned to work as a paramedic. Wearing a below-knee prosthesis was "no more of a chore than putting on a shoe."
But when chronic pain got worse two years ago, Rogers had to quit his job. He sold his house and moved his family from Milledgeville, Ga., to Washburn, about 50 miles north of Knoxville, just to be closer to the mountains.
The leg was amputated in March 2002, and he faced the prospect of spending the rest of his life on crutches and in a wheelchair. But four months later, Medicare helped pay for a $48,000 "C-Leg," an artificial knee, shin and foot made by the German company Otto Bock Orthopedic and available in the United States since 1999.
"Science will never be able to replace what God gave me, but they came close with this," says Rogers.
Hanger Prosthetics and Orthotics in Kingsport fitted the artificial leg on Rogers, but even the specialists there are amazed by his plans for the Appalachian Trail.
"You've got to have somebody who's got the nerve to do all this," says prosthetist Paul Meyer. "I am not sure I would walk 65 miles on a trail, and I have both of my God-given legs. He's a real gutsy guy."
On the practice hike in Pennsylvania, Rogers drained all the power from the battery on his bionic leg after the first day, and found he'd left his backup battery at home on the kitchen counter. Otto Bock had specially designed a soft panel, solar-powered battery charger, but Rogers was hiking in a steady downpour.
Without power, the C-Leg goes into fail-safe mode — the leg stiffens, although the knee continues to flex. Rogers walked for three more days before a charger that Meyer shipped from Kansas City reached a ranger station along the trail.
"I was hoping he would succeed because I didn't want to live with him if he didn't," his wife, Leisa, says with a laugh. "I figured if he didn't do it he was going to be miserable. ... He did real good."
She paralleled his route in the family van and left love notes along the trail to encourage him. The oldest of their six children, Tyler, 12, and Hannah, 11, walked with him part of the way.
Around 2,400 backpackers each year set out on the Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Springer Mountain in Georgia to the summit of Mount Katahdin in Maine.
Fewer than one in five completes the journey. A few have used crutches. At least one was blind. But none so far had an artificial leg, says Brian King, spokesman for the Appalachian Trail Conference in Blacksburg, Va.
"It is tough for anybody," King says. "There are hard places, especially coming down hills, even if you have two original legs."
With technical support and a backup leg from Otto Bock and Hanger Prosthetics, Rogers is ready to try. He hopes to raise money for a motor home so Leisa and the children can meet him at various points along the trail.
Paddy Rossbach, president and CEO of the Amputee Coalition of America, finds Rogers' plans exciting. Her home in Salisbury, Conn., overlooks the Appalachian Trail.
An amputee athlete herself, Rossbach says, "I think it is absolutely wonderful ... to hear about people taking on things that people who are able-bodied find difficult anyway."
"I have a lot of friends that are disabled," Rogers says. "If what I do motivates one of them, I guess that is what it is all about.
"And I guess also to prove to myself: 'Yeah, you can do it, Scotty.'"
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=519&e=4&u=/ap/20030908/ap_on_re_us/exp_bionic_hiker
This guy has his own web site at:
http://onelegwonder.faithweb.com/
I can only wish him the best!!!
============
2,168-Mile Trail Awaits 'Bionic' Hiker
Mon Sep 8,10:16 AM ET
Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!
By DUNCAN MANSFIELD, Associated Press Writer
WASHBURN, Tenn. - Scott Rogers, whose daily journey begins with a single step on a bionic leg, is preparing for a hike up the 2,168-mile Appalachian Trail.
Photo
AP Photo
"I have been told I can't do it, that I won't make it. But how do you know?" the 34-year-old says.
Rogers hikes with the help of the "C-Leg" — a prosthetic powered by a battery, driven by hydraulics and controlled by microprocessors that monitor his movement 50 times a second to create a natural, stable gait.
The affable Georgia native, whose Web and e-mail addresses say "onelegwonder," finished a grueling seven-day, 65-mile practice hike on the Laurel Highlands Trail in Pennsylvania.
Next April, he plans to start a seven-month trip along the Appalachian Trail, walking from Georgia to Maine. "If I fail at it," he says, "at least I tried."
Rogers lost his left leg below the knee in 1998 when he accidentally shot himself while hunting a snake. He says the accident, unexpectedly, made him stronger.
"What can hurt worse than being shot by a shotgun and surviving?" he asks.
With only one leg, he learned to water ski, bought an ultralight aircraft and returned to work as a paramedic. Wearing a below-knee prosthesis was "no more of a chore than putting on a shoe."
But when chronic pain got worse two years ago, Rogers had to quit his job. He sold his house and moved his family from Milledgeville, Ga., to Washburn, about 50 miles north of Knoxville, just to be closer to the mountains.
The leg was amputated in March 2002, and he faced the prospect of spending the rest of his life on crutches and in a wheelchair. But four months later, Medicare helped pay for a $48,000 "C-Leg," an artificial knee, shin and foot made by the German company Otto Bock Orthopedic and available in the United States since 1999.
"Science will never be able to replace what God gave me, but they came close with this," says Rogers.
Hanger Prosthetics and Orthotics in Kingsport fitted the artificial leg on Rogers, but even the specialists there are amazed by his plans for the Appalachian Trail.
"You've got to have somebody who's got the nerve to do all this," says prosthetist Paul Meyer. "I am not sure I would walk 65 miles on a trail, and I have both of my God-given legs. He's a real gutsy guy."
On the practice hike in Pennsylvania, Rogers drained all the power from the battery on his bionic leg after the first day, and found he'd left his backup battery at home on the kitchen counter. Otto Bock had specially designed a soft panel, solar-powered battery charger, but Rogers was hiking in a steady downpour.
Without power, the C-Leg goes into fail-safe mode — the leg stiffens, although the knee continues to flex. Rogers walked for three more days before a charger that Meyer shipped from Kansas City reached a ranger station along the trail.
"I was hoping he would succeed because I didn't want to live with him if he didn't," his wife, Leisa, says with a laugh. "I figured if he didn't do it he was going to be miserable. ... He did real good."
She paralleled his route in the family van and left love notes along the trail to encourage him. The oldest of their six children, Tyler, 12, and Hannah, 11, walked with him part of the way.
Around 2,400 backpackers each year set out on the Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Springer Mountain in Georgia to the summit of Mount Katahdin in Maine.
Fewer than one in five completes the journey. A few have used crutches. At least one was blind. But none so far had an artificial leg, says Brian King, spokesman for the Appalachian Trail Conference in Blacksburg, Va.
"It is tough for anybody," King says. "There are hard places, especially coming down hills, even if you have two original legs."
With technical support and a backup leg from Otto Bock and Hanger Prosthetics, Rogers is ready to try. He hopes to raise money for a motor home so Leisa and the children can meet him at various points along the trail.
Paddy Rossbach, president and CEO of the Amputee Coalition of America, finds Rogers' plans exciting. Her home in Salisbury, Conn., overlooks the Appalachian Trail.
An amputee athlete herself, Rossbach says, "I think it is absolutely wonderful ... to hear about people taking on things that people who are able-bodied find difficult anyway."
"I have a lot of friends that are disabled," Rogers says. "If what I do motivates one of them, I guess that is what it is all about.
"And I guess also to prove to myself: 'Yeah, you can do it, Scotty.'"