Paralympian Soldier Pioneers Prosthesis, Hopes to Inspire Others

By Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone C. Marshall Jr.

American Forces Press Service

LONDON – A sharpshooting Army sergeant who helped to usher in an innovative prosthesis that has helped countless wounded warriors has brought his sharp eye to compete in the 2012 Paralympic Games here.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Joshua Olson, a member of the 2012 Paralympic shooting team and of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit helped to develop an advanced prosthesis for wounded service members.

“[In] October 2003, I was wounded in Iraq by a rocket-propelled grenade during an ambush,” Olson said. “From there, I was medevaced to Landstuhl [Regional Medical Center in Germany], and I was there for about eight days.” After that, he said, he woke up at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where he spent about 18 months.

“In my stay at Walter Reed, there was an outdoor event every day in occupational therapy – shotgun shooting,” he said. “I went out and shot sporting clay one day. I hit my first 49 out of 50.”

Olson said his shooting acuity caught the attention of the program director at Walter Reed, who put in a call to the Army Marksmanship Unit at Fort Benning, Ga., to see if a position was available for a competitive shooter or marksmanship instructor.

“I went down to Fort Benning from Walter Reed, had a tryout and was very successful,” Olson said. “[I] got along great with the coaches and the other shooters on the team.”

The Army sergeant said he was assigned to the marksmanship unit in June 2005 and “slowly, but surely, started shooting.”

“And I'm here today,” he added.

Olson noted that been many troops in his position have wished to stay in the military despite their injuries, but were unable to.

“There's a lot of guys that have been wounded that want to continue to serve,” he said. “I'm very blessed and very fortunate to be able to do that.

I hope I inspire, not even [just] wounded soldiers, but other soldiers,” he continued, “just to [let them know], 'Hey, you might be going through something tough, such as [post-traumatic stress], but if you work hard and give yourself goals to work on, it helps you get out of bed every day [and] helps you work hard and overcome things in your life.”

In discussing the origin of the “Olson Socket,” the Army sergeant is quick to note he didn't invent the prosthesis himself.

“I was just the first guy to wear it and help make it work,” Olson explained. “In late 2004, I went down to Orlando, Fla., where Prosthetics and Associates is, and [met] a gentleman by the name of Dennis Clark.”

“Those guys got together [with] myself and the actual designers, and originally drew it up on a bar napkin,” he revealed. “And we tried it out, and we put it together and made it work.”

Olson said as soon as he got back to Walter Reed with the prosthesis, officials there immediately began sending service members down to Florida to be fitted for the same prosthesis and socket system.

“I was very fortunate and very blessed they named it after me, but I just happened to be the first guy to ever have one,” he said.

Olson credited his military service for the discipline that got him here to compete in the Paralympic Games.

“Military service has prepared me for the Paralympics by teaching me determination, patience and just overall hard work,” he said. “My goal for the Paralympics is to be able to perform my best – to perform at the level I know I can. If I do that, I should be on the medal stand.”

The key to his success, Olson said, is practicing, staying focused and concentrating on the fundamentals of his sport.

“For me, my biggest challenge is the ability to stay focused during the entire match,” he said. “So I do some mental exercises, a lot of imagery and some visualization exercises. This sport is 95 percent mental and 5 percent physical.

“I've been training a long time for this,” he added. “There's really no shooting drill, no mental exercise or anything you can really do to prepare for actually sitting there.”

Olson’s next Paralympic Games shooting event is scheduled for Sept. 4 at the Royal Artillery Barracks.

New Brace Salvages Limbs, Mobility, Morale

By Elaine Sanchez
American Forces Press Service

SAN ANTONIO  – A wounded warrior limped into Ryan Blanck’s office at the Center for the Intrepid here one day with a plea for help.

The doctors at San Antonio Military Medical Center had saved the service member’s leg after a combat injury, but due to the pain, he couldn’t walk comfortably, let alone run.

Blanck, a leading prosthetist at the state-of-the-art rehab center, found himself in an unfamiliar position: at a loss. “There wasn’t a go-to option,” he said, referring to devices for wounded warriors with lower leg injuries.

So Blanck created one. He designed the Intrepid Dynamic Exoskeletal Orthosis, or IDEO, a streamlined, energy-storing brace that delivers nearly instantaneous results. Now, most troops with salvaged limbs who wheel or limp into his office walk out a short time later, pain and limp-free.

The injured warriors are impressed by the results. When they strap on the brace for the first time and start walking, Blanck said, some stumble midway across the room, but not due to discomfort.

“They’re uncontrollably weeping,” he said. “It’s the first time they’ve walked without pain in two or three, or seven years in one guy’s case.”

Brace Proves to be ‘Game-Changer’

Blanck’s creation is a lightweight, streamlined carbon-fiber device that can be tucked under a pant leg and into a boot or sneaker. It comprises a cuff that wraps around the leg just under the knee connected to a footplate by carbon-fiber rods.

The brace works by offloading the limb and allowing the patient to operate the lower limb in a way that avoids pain, he explained. When a service member’s heel strikes, the device stores energy through the gait cycle, then delivers it back to propel the foot forward.

“That’s the concept behind it all; energy storage and power,” he said.

Prior to IDEO, Blanck noted, “there wasn’t a combination device that would allow offloading, adequate range restriction and then power generation.”

The device is proving a “game-changer” for service members with salvaged limbs, said Johnny Owens, a CFI physical therapist who is working hand-in-hand with Blanck in treating IDEO-fitted warriors. “We’re seeing immediate changes we don’t usually see,” he said.

Owens said the device also is singlehandedly helping to turn the tide on a trend of wounded warriors opting for delayed amputations -- amputations several months after injury. He attributes the trend to the slow, and sometimes frustrating, recovery for troops with lower leg injuries.

“Prior to all this, limb salvage was a little bit of an unknown,” Blanck explained. “You couldn’t tell a patient, ‘you’re going to run.’”

But amputees -- depending on the situation and barring other injuries -- can regain significant functions about six months after amputation, he noted. Meanwhile, limb salvage patients sit on the sidelines watching their amputee battle buddies walking or running as their own progress proceeds painfully slow.

Frustrated by their limitations, some troops with salvaged limbs opted for late amputations.

“It’s enticing,” Owens said. “You’re in pain, but if you cut your leg off, you can run. Many invested a year or two in recovery and then decided to cut [a limb] off. It was psychologically frustrating to see these guys work so hard and then just cut it off.”

Thanks to IDEO, these troops now have another option, he said, that enables them to not only walk, but run, sprint and jump.

Returning to Service

Word is spreading of IDEO and its astounding results, and Blanck now is fitting troops from around the country with his device. After hearing of Blanck’s and Owens’ success, Army 1st Lt. Matthew Anderson traveled here from his unit at Fort Carson, Colo., hoping for similar results.

Anderson, an infantry platoon leader, was injured in October 2010 while on a dismounted combat patrol in Kandahar, Afghanistan. As his unit cleared a building, he stepped on a landmine. “It felt like a jackhammer hitting my ankle,” he recalled. The explosive shattered his heel into a dozen pieces.

The doctors salvaged his limb, but the injury left Anderson in pain and with a pronounced limp. While he was able to start walking again after about six months, this strapping, lifelong athlete figured his running days were over.

It took Blanck just a few minutes to prove him wrong. With the IDEO, Anderson was walking comfortably within minutes and running within days.

“It put the biggest smile on my face,” the infantry platoon leader said. He had stopped by the CFI early one morning so Blanck could make adjustments to his device and fit him for another.

“I went from walking with a severe gait issue and a limp to walking normally,” Anderson said.

Blanck finished his adjustments, and Anderson pulled a sneaker over the foot plate and walked across the office with a smooth stride.

Once he got the brace, “I could run on it, jump vertically, laterally shuffle,” Anderson said. “Things that there’s no way I’d be doing with that much speed, efficiency or lack of pain.

“For a guy that’s in his late 20s that’s always been a jock athlete, being hampered by these injuries is pretty tough mentally,” he continued. “When you’re given the option to get back into it, it’s huge; it means a lot to me.”

Anderson soon will return to duty at Fort Carson. Of the nearly 200 cases they’ve seen, Owens noted, more than 30 have returned to service and 11 have combat deployed.

As they test and improve the current design, Blanck and Owens also are looking into what they call a “widespread potential” for people with issues such as ankle arthritis, strokes and head, back and other injuries.

The program’s success has one limitation: space. Between amputees and warriors with salvaged limbs, the CFI can get crowded at times. The pair would like to see a rehab center like the CFI, but devoted to wounded warriors with salvaged limbs. There would be no shortage of demand, Owens said, noting that for every one amputee, there are about 10 limb salvage patients.

Meanwhile, they have no plans to cut back, no matter how great the demand. Just seeing the joy in a wounded warrior’s face at walking again pain-free, they said, makes every extra hour at work worthwhile.

“I never thought I’d come to work and get hugged by a 220-pound, 6-foot-4, Special Forces guy,” said Blanck with a smile, “but I’ve had a few hugs.

“I loved my job before this, but this is a whole new level.”

Workshop Prosthetic Technology

By Sgt. Sara Wood, USA
American Forces Press Service

June 1, 2007 – As the use of improvised explosive devices has continued steadily against U.S. troops in Iraq, the Defense Department has made treating those troops seriously injured in the blasts a top priority. That was the focus of a three-day workshop for Defense Department and Veterans Affairs medical professionals at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here, who gathered to discuss advancements in treating traumatic amputee patients.

"We in the Army have lived by a warrior ethos, and part of that ethos is that we do not leave a fallen comrade. You're seeing that here, exemplified in the work of these great caregivers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and throughout the Army medical department and the military health system every day," Army Maj. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker, commander of Walter Reed, said at the beginning of a media demonstration today.

Several of the workshop presenters and Walter Reed patients demonstrated the latest prosthetic technology and the rehabilitation process for amputees.

The warrior ethos also includes a commitment to never accept defeat or give up, Schoomaker noted, and that's what amputee care and rehabilitation is all about.

"What you're seeing here today is a personification of not accepting defeat and not quitting," he said. "The mission of the warrior who's wounded is to turn that mission focus to restoring their own health and well-being, and restoring their full function. That's what the Army and the joint force is about; it's about restoring the full function and retaining great warriors."

The technology demonstrated today included a "power knee," which is the first motor-powered prosthetic; a powered ankle-foot unit with microprocessor technology to detect changes in terrain; a microprocessor knee with artificial intelligence that recognizes and adjusts to changes in speed; and "cheetah feet," which are prostheses specially designed for sprinting and high-level competition.

Amputee patients also demonstrated different training techniques physical therapists use during rehabilitation. The troops start with running drills that use five steps to introduce the amputee to running with a prosthesis. They move into multi-directional drills, which teach them to move on different planes and work on speed, agility and power. The amputees also work on speed drills, which use resistance to increase stride length and frequency.

Marine Gunnery Sgt. Angel Barcenas was one of the amputees demonstrating training techniques today. Barcenas was wounded by an improvised explosive device in Iraq in July 2006 and lost both legs below the knee. He has been using the "cheetah feet" for about three weeks and today demonstrated several running drills, one using a parachute for resistance, and agility drills with hurdles.

Barcenas' healing process went quickly after being transported back to the U.S.; he started walking in September 2006, just three months after being injured. He credits the professionals at Walter Reed for his quick recovery.

"I don't know how they do it," he said. "They have a lot of work to do and they dedicated a lot of time just to me to make sure I was okay."

Barcenas said that the "cheetah feet" make a huge difference in his running ability, giving him more ability to push off with his ankles and toes. He participated in the entire workshop, which he said showcases a different side of Walter Reed than is usually portrayed.

"They have a tremendous amount of people here with the biggest hearts. They become really good friends; they become really personal, and it helps the patients," he said.

Another important message from this program and others like it is that even traumatic injuries can be overcome, Barcenas said. "It's possible to get back up on your feet and do exactly the things you were doing before without struggling," he said.

Amputee rehabilitation programs have returned 20 percent of amputees to active service, Schoomaker said. "We have soldiers fighting today in Afghanistan and elsewhere who are wearing prostheses that were fitted and that they were trained to use here," he said.

The Defense Department is committed to investing in cutting-edge technology and partnering with other government agencies and the civilian medical community to provide the best care possible for amputees, Schoomaker said. Ultimately, the Defense Department medical community hopes to move beyond injured servicemembers and benefit the U.S. population at large and even the global community, he said.

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