Bionic leg gives man a step up
Posted on Friday, September 22, 2006
BENTONVILLE This time last year, Bill Dunham had a hard time climbing stairs. Now when you see him, stairs are a much smaller mountain to climb.
Dunham, a part-time instructor at Northwest Arkansas Community College, lost his right leg above the knee after being injured by friendly fire during the 1989 Panama invasion. Dunham now teaches introduction to terrorism at NWACC.
Hes had various prosthetic devices over the past 16 years, but in January, he became one of about half a dozen people in the country to use a bionic leg.
Its the first (kind of prosthesis ) to replace muscle function, he said Thursday. Everything up until now has just replaced skeletal function.
The prosthesis involves wearing an insert in his left shoe that is connected to an ankle bracelet that he wears around the left ankle. The sensors transmit his leg and foot movements and angles to the computer in his prosthesis, using Bluetooth technology.
It processes what the left side is doing, and it tries to mimic it, Dunham said.
While it requires training and much more concentration than a standard prothesis, the new device gives Dunham more freedom.
Take the stairs, for example. With a standard prosthesis, he would step up with his left leg then drag the leg with the prosthesis up the step. With the new device, he can manipulate his left foot and leg to tell his prosthesis to step up in the normal fashion.
Dunham often gets to demonstrate the skill when he goes around the country talking to doctors, patients and other medical personnel about his new leg, which he got through Hanger Prosthesis.
Its been 16 years since I walked step over step, he said. (When Im demonstrating the device to other amputees ), they look up and say, Wow, do that again.
Dunham will be on The Montel Williams Show in an episode scheduled to run Monday. The show airs in this area on KNWA at 11 a. m. weekdays.
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