The Bionic Age
One of the good things to come out of the Iraq War (well, besides the prospect of finally ridding the world of yet another despot) is the U.S. government's intention to provide the best possible outcome for its wounded soldiers through expanded funding for prosthetic research and development.
From The House Committee on Veterans' Affairs report: "As Congress moves forward in consideration of its veterans research requirements, NAUS encourages a strong effort to see that critical funding is provided for the VA mission to conduct medical research, especially in the area of traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injuries, blindness and prosthetic research . . . It is essential that research be conducted to guide treatment and rehabilitation for these individuals with polytraumatic injuries. VA medical and prosthetic research programs have played a key role in meeting the current and future health challenges facing veterans with disabling injuries."
CNN published an article on November 14th detailing how advances in modern medicine are saving the lives of numerous soldiers who ordinarily would have died from the severity of their battle wounds. Now, the influx of these wounded soldiers (an estimated 20,000 or more) back into civilian life has upped the demand for newer and better prosthetics -- and in a free market, supply always follows demand.
Meet the new Proprio Foot, an ankle-and-foot prosthetic that incorporates artificial intelligence to monitor individual movement and calculate adjustments according to changes in terrain, making walking and moving a lot more natural for below the knee amputees.
Although the current military body armor is far more effective in providing safety from battle injuries than past gear, soldiers are still losing arms and legs to land mines and roadside bombs. Yet a corollary of the success in saving the lives of wounded Iraq-war soldiers is the increasing number of survivors who undergo single or multiple amputations. According to a 2004 U. S. Senate report, 6 percent of injured troops in Iraq have required amputations, twice the rate of any previous war.
“Every time a war occurs, you see an increase in technology for prosthetics," stated Scott Sabolich of Oklahoma's Scott Sabolich Prosthetics and Research facility. "(But) little do people know that really about 3,000 people each week lose a limb in the United States, and there are another 56,000 a year that go on day in and day out with the same old technology" until the rising number of surviving military wounded ups the demand for a better product.
But despite what some anti-Bush Administration types would have you believe, today's government (just like yesterday's government) actually does invest in post-battle care for its veterans, which means that every time a war occurs, we see a concurrent increase in prosthetics technology.
Which brings me back to the Proprio Foot, a microprocessor foot that was designed by a firm out of Iceland whose pioneering prosthetics have been enthusiastically embraced by the staff at the Walter Reed Military Hospital. The microprocessor creates a profile of the individual's walking style, then automatically launches into the programmed gait when the individual starts to move. This kind of advancement is light years beyond the original wooden leg, not to mention the more recent nuts and bolts sockets that offer limited range of movement with poor flexibility and no terrain sensitivity.
But why am I writing about this? The BF wears a prosthetic limb himself (his foot was amputated when he was a child), and is headed to Oklahoma to the Sabolich facility in early 2007 to get himself fitted for the new Proprio Foot. Sabolich has already fitted two Iraq veterans with these high-tech limbs, and we're both excited to see the thing up close and personal, not to mention the difference that it will make in the BF's daily life. He's been waiting decades for good prosthetics technology to emerge, and it's been a frustrating wait -- while childhood Trek geeks the world over were dressing up in their Captain Kirk costumes and dreaming of warp drives and worm holes, the BF was watching reruns of The Six Million Dollar Man and plotting out, in great detail, just how he was going to independently earn enough cash to buy a bionic leg of his own one day.
That day has been a long time coming. Thank god he spent his time wisely.
“I just wish we were able to develop better technology whenever anyone loses a leg, instead of waiting for a war,” added Sabolich in an interview with The Journal Record.
Hmmmm, maybe we'll see the emergence of a new, pro-military lobbying group? "Invade already, we need better arms and legs!"