Artificial limb uses computer
BUTLER TWP — Bill Essary has six extra legs, making him sort of a man-sized Swiss Army knife.
He's got one for swimming, one for running, one for work and three for day-to-day use, depending on what he expects to do that day.
Essary, 28, of Valencia on Tuesday explained how his newest leg, the one with a computer in the ankle, has been working to members of the therapy department at the Butler Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Physically fit and tall enough to look up to, Essary was run over in 2004 by a special duty Ford F250 pickup truck used by the military on base while he was part of the Army forces in Iraq.
The truck broke both bones in both of Essary's forearms and the bones in his lower left leg, which was later amputated below the knee.
Essary doesn't dwell on the accident, except to say that of his injured limbs, his left arm gives him the most trouble.
He visited the veterans medical center with representatives of Hanger Prosthetics and Orthotics to show off his new leg and to let the staff get a look at one of the newest prosthetic technologies.
Coming though the door, he asked for an Allen wrench, took off his leg and began making an adjustment with the help of Michael Virostek, Essary's certified prosthetist orthotist with Hanger."At Walter Reed (Army Medical Center near Washington, D.C.), I got yelled at a lot for tinkering with the leg," Essary said, adding though as the wearer, he needs to know how to fix it should it ever break down when he is alone.Virostek said the computer in the ankle of this prosthetic limb, developed by Ossur in Iceland, automatically adjusts itself."This means that we have a foot that can adjust to going up and down stairs or up and down hills, as well as having a height adjustable heel that allows for the use of different shoes," Virostek said.Frank Erdeljac, a Hanger regional assistant manager, also said that in the past prosthetic leg wearers had to deal with a foot, that when sitting, remained in an upright position.He asked Essary to show how when he sits down, his new foot levels to the floor after a few seconds."That's why I never sit in the back of a car," Essary said. "I couldn't get my foot under the front seat. With this foot I can."These new prosthetic technologies also reduce the everyday wear and tear on the rest of a patient's body.Essary said that after several months of wearing less advanced legs he developed hip pain that interrupted his work and life.
Erdeljac said these new legs limit the amount of adjustments wearers have to make on their normal movements, which should reduce additional problems like hip pain.Essary, who graduated from Knoch High School in 1997, worked for Armstrong and another cable company in Michigan, before joining the Army in 2003.He now works for Unis Demolition of Aliquippa, where he operates heavy equipment.He and his wife, Trish, live in Valencia with what Essary says is his greatest accomplishment, their 20-month-old son, Hunter."I can't say enough about the folks at Walter Reed," Essary said of the care that brought him home to become the father he is."They worked you hard, from day one. But you'd walk into the exercise room and there'd be a guy with both legs gone running on the treadmill or with half his face gone and you said to yourself, 'How lucky am I?'"
