From a Wheelchair to the Dance Stage; Leesburg Prosthetist Helps Texas Woman

By Mark McLaughlin

When 23-year-old-Lacey Phipps walked comfortably on her prosthetic legs for the first time in years, the feeling was almost too much for words.

“I was flabbergasted that I actually could because I hadn’t used my legs in so long,” she said. “I was freakishly excited!”

Phipps was talking shortly after she received prosthetic legs from Leesburg prosthetist John Hattingh, CP, LPO, CPO(SA), owner of Prosthetic Care Facility of Virginia.

Phipps, a student at Texas Tech University, contacted Hattingh after becoming frustrated with her reliance on a wheelchair and inability to use her existing prostheses because of discomfort and a poor fit.

“I couldn’t walk in a straight line, so I was pretty much stuck in my wheelchair,” she said.

But Hattingh, who has more than 30 years experience in treating amputees who present difficult cases, got Phipps out of her chair and walking comfortably within three days after her first visit.

“She was an extremely challenging case,” Hattingh said, explaining that she made clear she was up for the hard work ahead. In Phipps’ case, after spending most of her life in a wheelchair, she had a reduced range in her hips and knees – known as flexion contractures – along with poor lower muscle strength.

“Her previous prostheses did not compensate for her contractures and they were extremely ill fitting,” Hattingh explained, adding that Phipps previous prosthetic legs did not compensate for differences in her leg lengths. “She had so much pain and discomfort, even when just standing.”

Phipps is a congenital bilateral clubfoot and had her first surgery to correct it after her first birthday. It was unsuccessful and multiple surgeries only worsened the condition and made her feet more deformed. By 18, she had spent six years in a wheelchair. She was already sure that amputation would be the only way to walk again and her doctor agreed with her. Her right foot was amputated in July 2012 and her left foot in December 2012.

There are many success stories of amputees who, after elective amputation, have a prosthetist who can fit and fabricate a prosthesis for them that helps them walk, run, and undertake other activities comfortably and securely. Such was not the case for Phipps, who had trouble adjusting.

“They had to weigh six or seven pounds,” she said, estimating the weight of the bulky prosthetics. “When you are dragging that on your leg, it is pretty impossible to get anywhere.”

Another amputee tipped Phipps off to a Facebook post of by Hattingh offering to do pro-bono work for an amputee who had not reached his or her full potential of activity because of a lack of funds or insurance.

“At first, I wasn’t going to respond because I thought maybe somebody else needed it more. After falling down a lot, I thought, OK, I’m going to send them my story,” Phipps said, adding that she viewed Hattingh as a last chance to get back on her feet.

Hattingh and his wife, Michele, a registered nurse, picked up all expenses for Phipps to travel to Virginia for a fitting for new, functional prostheses.

While Phipps was in a wheelchair, she still had become a member of the Texas Tech Irish Set Dancers, a group that worked Phipps into their routine.

 “I was the only member that couldn’t get up and dance. I was kind of the mascot,” she said. But the prostheses have helped who move into more of a performance role.

“It was a little bit stumbly, but I did it,” she said. “I left the week before in a wheelchair and the next time they saw me, I was dancing. It was pretty cool.”

Phipps expects to graduate in 2014 with a degree in biochemistry, and then move on to medical school to become a pediatric surgeon; she doesn’t want any other child to suffer like she has suffered for 23 years.

Phipps will continue to see Hattingh a few more times over the next year; as her activity level increases, her prosthetic legs will need adjustments to compensate for changes in her residual limb.