Pediatric Device Innovation

Claudio's Recovery

June 23, 2016 by Andrew Pedtke

Two weeks ago we learned of the recovery period of one of our #LIMLegends, Claudio Cappabianca through the eyes of his son Marco. This week we asked Claudio himself, a true renaissance man, to tell the amputee community about the struggles and victories he faced during his recovery period. Let’s hear what he has to say:

“Six months had passed since the accident. I had fought and won many setbacks that I’d faced, but it was the eve of the fitting of my ‘new’ leg, where hopefully I would be finally free to walk again! There were so many questions running through my mind: Will it work? How easy is it going to be? Did I have any regrets for having been so reckless and stupid? Will I be ridding myself of the crutches like I did with the wheelchair?

I couldn’t believe this day has finally come. From the moment I got hurt I had been waiting for this day. I thought it would have taken at most two months, not more, but I didn’t account for all the setbacks in my recovery process.

I don’t remember driving to the clinician office, but for some reason I remember standing on the balancing rails. Looking to my right side I saw Andrew, Mac and Dave, surrounded by my wife and daughter. I could see their nervous glances as my son prepared to film the first step of my new life. I assumed it was going to be a breeze to walk again on two legs. How wrong I was; it was just about impossible, with no equilibrium. I couldn’t walk, and could not stand unless holding to the parallel bars or crutches.

It wasn’t an easy couple of weeks learning how to walk again. After multiple falls, the only thing you can do is pull yourself up again. The rehab crew worked on me both mornings and afternoons to see how much I could take. I had the best time of my life since the accident, I was so happy and eager to do as much possible. When I was ready, I walked through the rehab revolving door all by myself with no assisting device, just me and my new leg on the way to challenge myself and the world again with a great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

A little over a year has passed and nothing has passed by without hard work and sacrifice, mostly physical. I did experience a few days of depression but managed to get over it thanks to my wife’s tireless support. I have been able to get back to my life as it was before the accident but with a few exceptions. I can’t run, can’t bike and can’t ski. I have tried skiing and after five days and dozens of runs and very risky situations, I had to give it up as my knee joints are asymmetric and therefore it’s impossible to kneel down, which is the prime requirement for turning. Well, we’ll have to work out a solution for next winter, I’m not done yet, at least I have another challenge to look for.

I have returned to my mountain, back to landscaping, cutting trees, splitting logs, driving my tractor and walking the lawn mower. I even managed to go by myself on the train to the Center for Medicare to help prevent them depriving disabled Americans of certain critical benefits and to assist Andrew to help persuade the administrators to approve coverage for the LIM Infinite Socket.

How much credit is due to the LIM? I could have not been able to accomplish much if it wasn’t for the adjustability of my Infinite Socket. It’s just like wearing a ski boot with its side buckle. Bi-weekly visits with my clinician and dear friend Dave Bow who has been my pit crew all these months; making sure the Infinite Socket would perform to my capability and satisfaction was vital.

I can definitively say that I’m living an almost normal life, I’m used to my new leg, I feel normal when I wear it but not as much when I have to park it for the night.

I am very grateful to Nedim, Andrew, Geoff, Mac, Dave, Marco and GiuGiu’ with Christine and David, all the friends who visited me while at Albany Med, all the doctors and nurses, the rescue team, the medevac pilot who bravely decided to continue flying thru the rain storm instead of putting down and finally my dear and loving wife Silvana who stood by me and tirelessly putting up with this crazy bum!”

Family First – The perspective of a Son

June 9, 2016 by Andrew Pedtke

Claudio Cappabianca has been wearing the Infinite Socket since his amputation in 2014. During the rehabilitation period following his accident Claudio’s son Marco helped him take his first steps and get to where he is today. Here is his account of his Father’s process following limb loss.

“Limb loss is a staggering event, but as shocking as the circumstances may be that led to such an incident, the family must cope trying to understand the recovery process in hopes of their loved one walking again, perhaps with no idea whatsoever where to start.

My Father Claudio, truly embodies the old school Italian renaissance man; fashionable, athletic, hard working, and intelligent. At the time of the accident he was at his home in upstate New York standing on a ladder, cutting down some trees. Out of sheer determination he somehow managed to find his way to the hospital.

With the very real prospect of amputation on the horizon, we were introduced to LIM Innovations within days of my Father’s accident, through my friend who knew Andrew Pedtke and it was clear this company had a mission to help people. Andrew, as a medical professional, understood exactly the physical aspect of the situation, and further opened up the team at LIM to aid in the mental aspect we faced. We felt cared for, important, and understood. The recovery process in my father’s case has been long for various medical reasons, but LIM Innovations has a never ending patience in an effort to see my Father, a highly active, seasoned individual (71 years old), get back to life as it was before the accident.

For the younger generation of amputees the benefits of working with LIM and the Infinite Socket must be amazing. For us, I hate to think where we would be today if left to work with a “one-size-fits-all” company and product.

Choosing a future with LIM Innovations is choosing a forward looking company and product that comes with hope, care, attention, and a return to life! Thanks to LIM, Claudio can spend time with my daughter and can advocate for those in need through his never give up fighting attitude”

NEW PUSH FOR PINT-SIZED MEDICAL DEVICES

November 2, 2015 by Andrew Pedtke

Seeing Miyah happy and living an active lifestyle in her LIM socket is what inspires our team to keep innovating. At three years old, she’s already overcome more adversity than most and we’re excited to see her grow up with the chance to do whatever she puts her mind to. Miyah and her prosthetist, Brent at Eastpoint Prosthetics and Orthotics, are helping spur an evolution from the outdated and outsized medical devices currently used with children to a brand new era of pint-sized versions tailored for kids’s needs. We couldn’t be more proud to be a part of that.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Improvise isn’t a word parents want to hear from their kid’s doctor. Yet pediatric specialists too often have to jury-rig care because many of the medical devices needed to treat sick children were built for adults.

A birth defect left Miyah Williams with one leg missing at mid-thigh. The prosthetic leg she received as a toddler came with such a painful, sweat- and sore-inducing socket; a rigid cup connecting the leg to her thigh that she refused to wear it. Part of the problem is size. Now families are starting to demand solutions to address the issue and rightly so.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4fZcqCtS_Y&w=560&h=315]

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Irene Blum's Prosthetic Journey

October 13, 2015 by Andrew Pedtke

Here at LIM Innovations we pride ourselves on the feedback from users. With such a diverse group of users, we invite you to join one of our amputees for an in-depth look at their story and how our Infinite Socket has affected their lives. Irene Blum’s prosthetic journey focuses on how she overcame her battle against cancer successfully to make huge strides in becoming the healthy and active amputee she is today. Irene’s story is truly inspiring.

Before I got sick, I was a busy young adult. I was a 20-year-old single mom and full-time college student. I’d run after my son at a playground in the afternoon and pull all-nighters to finish essays due the next morning. I was healthy, active, and able to keep up with my son and schoolwork. Toward the end of 2013 through early 2014, I started feeling fatigued and had very bad pain below my right knee. I couldn’t keep up anymore, I didn’t want to get out of bed. The pain would be so excruciating that it would wake me up in the middle of the night and I would have crying fits because nothing would relieve me from that. After many doctor appointments and tests, they had an explanation for everything I was going through. It was a lesion eating away at my tibia bone. In May 2014, I was diagnosed with a pediatric bone cancer called Ewing’s Sarcoma.

My protocol involved a year of chemotherapy and limb-salvage surgery that involved removing half of my femur, my knee, and half of my tibia and replacing that with metal, plastic, and cadaver bone. I felt so lucky that surgical techniques have improved so much that amputation for bone cancer was no longer necessary and they’d be able to save my leg! Well, I was wrong. After surgery, my leg was completely numb and limp. I couldn’t move my foot or toes. I became extremely depressed because I thought I would never be able to function normally again because I had a dead leg that I couldn’t control and that always buckled beneath me.

A few weeks after my limb-salvage surgery, chemotherapy started again. The type of chemo I was on wiped out my immune system completely so any little infection I caught would be life-threatening. A few months after my initial surgery, I noticed my incision re-opened on my knee and it began leaking pus and the skin was necrotic. The doctors thought it was a superficial skin infection so I was treated for that. My leg was still leaking pus but I was told it would stop because of the antibiotics. I guess my body just couldn’t fight it though because almost a week after being released from the hospital for my skin infection, I started developing very intense pain deep in my knee. It was literally the worst pain of my entire life. Worse than labor, worse than child-birth, worse than an accident that resulted in 2^nd and 3^rd degree burns all over my torso and leg, and worse than the cancer eating away my bone.

I could not get out of bed, I was dripping in sweat, I could not move because any little movement would result in screams and cries. I was on heavy duty pain medications that weren’t working when a home visiting nurse came to my house to check on me. She looked mortified. My pants were wet from leakage from my leg, I had a 105F temperature, my heart rate was 180, and my blood pressure was 70/40. She called 911 and when the EMTs tried to move me, I screamed bloody murder because of the pain. They injected me with some more heavy duty pain medicine that did not help at all. They said they could have sedated a horse with the amount of pain medication I was on. THAT is how much pain I was in.

They rushed me to my local hospital where it was determined that I had gone into septic shock. I was then sent to the cancer hospital where I would be treated. I overheard the doctors tell the paramedics that they didn’t believe I could keep my leg.

In December 2014, my leg was amputated above the knee. And honestly, thanks to my prosthetist Leah Brickner and LIM Innovations, I have so much more quality of life now than when I had my limb-salvage surgery. Initially, I had a traditional socket which I absolutely hated. My stump size was always changing so I would have to compensate with socks or not being able to sit all the way in the socket. It was heavy, clunky, and awkward. Leah decided LIM Innovations’ Infinite Socket would be perfect for me and it was. It allows for fluctuation of the stump because of its open design. I can easily adjust my socket strap. As my body changes, I don’t need to compensate with socks because I can just make it a little tighter when I need to. I don’t need to wait around for new sockets to be fabricated because my prosthetist and I can make quick and easy changes to the socket I have.

Another personal advantage of the Infinite Socket is that because the struts are far apart, the heterotrophic ossification that formed on my femur sits in between my two front struts and it isn’t irritated at all. Also, I was born with club foot and have issues with my remaining ankle. I had a small procedure done on it and heavily relied on my “good leg,” or my prosthetic leg.

Since I have only been in remission from cancer for 4 months, I am still in the beginning stages of being a healthy and active amputee, but every single day I make huge strides. So far I have been able to walk again, walk up my flight of stairs to get into my apartment, drive, hit softballs in a batting cage, dance salsa, catch a bridal bouquet, play pranks on my friends, show off my “robot leg” to sick children in the hospital, walk around the mall with my girlfriends, and go on vacation. One day I want to run in a childhood cancer fundraising race. Because of how awesome my leg is, I am sure I will be able to. Most importantly though, I am chasing after my son at playgrounds in the afternoon and am pulling all-nighters to finish essays due the next morning again. Leah Brickner and LIM Innovations helped me take my life back.

On Call with Dr. AP: Spanning the Country

February 27, 2015 by Andrew Pedtke

I apologize for wavering on my vow to write a weekly post for our loyal readers, which is why I have decided to write two posts this week. February has been a busy month for us, with the team stretched across the continental US for a variety of events.

I would like to take a moment to update you on our recent travels.

From the AAOP Academy Annual Meeting in New Orleans, to the National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation at the University of Maryland, to our first pair of successful fittings at Walter Reed Medical Center, I could not be more proud of the LIM Innovations team.

In a follow-up visit to Walter Reed Medical Center, we received more positive feedback on the Infinite Socket. It has been a great learning experience for our team, and an even better opportunity to work with our active duty military and veteran populations. We appreciate their dedication to provide feedback and help develop of the Infinite Socket.

A small team took to Baltimore with our first pediatric user in tow, where we were selected as a winner and received $50,000 in seed funds from the National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation. Similar to our efforts with Walter Reed, we are honored to have received additional funding to improve pediatric care in prosthetics.

Just last week, we attended the 41^st Annual Academy Meeting in New Orleans, where we debuted our LIM Provider Platform. With over 200 attendees at our booth, 94 prosthetists at our workshop, and 38 applications for our LIM Provider Network, the conference was successful.

We are excited about our varied efforts, serving multiple populations, and hope we can continue to improve the standard of care in the prosthetic industry. Your steady support has been critical to our growth.

I vow to give our dedicated readers a weekly commentary on industry trends, the latest LIM events, entrepreneurial lessons I learn as the CEO and Co-Founder of LIM Innovations, and pearls of wisdom as a practicing Orthopaedic surgeon. I ask you join me at the most obscure hours of the night as you all “take call” with Dr. AP. I view this as an opportunity for our supporters to connect with me and to share what happens behind the scenes here at LIM Innovations.

Andrew Seelhoff Testimonial

January 8, 2015 by Andrew Pedtke

Andrew Seelhoff invites Lim on a beach stroll to share his story of how after undergoing amputation to reignite his life, he was faced with a life partnered with a “bucket” as a prosthetic socket. After much research, Andrew was fitted with the Infinite Socket and talks about the differences between this and the “bucket” he was faced with.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WJ_8WrGdvE&w=560&h=315]