News Archive
Heather hopes to break Guinness world record for speed skating.
BRITISH disabled skier Heather Mills is attempting to break the Guineess World Record for speed skating - wearing a prosthetic leg that has been a year in development.
Heather - who lost her leg in a collision with a motorbike in 1993 - only started her professional sporting career in 2011 when she was approached by the head of the Slovenian Masters whilst on a skiing holiday in Austria.
She has a host of medals under her belt and now has a permanent position with the British disability skiing team - but she's now in training to become the fastest disabled female speed skier in the world.
She will need to reach speeds of more than 200km/h - a feat that will involve a vertical of drop of between 300 and 340 metres.
Heather said: 'Skiing is a high-octane sport and I knew the risks when I first set about training. For me though, the most frustrating thing was that my initial prosthesis only offered very limited movement which was neither natural nor comfortable and tended to hinder my performance somewhat.'
She is using a specialist prosthetic skiing leg designed and built by Abdo Haidar of The London Prosthetic Centre. A painstaking, year-long project which involved over 15 appointments, the prosthesis has been designed to withstand the harshest of racing conditions.
Heather - who lost her leg in a collision with a motorbike in 1993 - only started her professional sporting career in 2011 when she was approached by the head of the Slovenian Masters whilst on a skiing holiday in Austria.
She has a host of medals under her belt and now has a permanent position with the British disability skiing team - but she's now in training to become the fastest disabled female speed skier in the world.
She will need to reach speeds of more than 200km/h - a feat that will involve a vertical of drop of between 300 and 340 metres.
Heather said: 'Skiing is a high-octane sport and I knew the risks when I first set about training. For me though, the most frustrating thing was that my initial prosthesis only offered very limited movement which was neither natural nor comfortable and tended to hinder my performance somewhat.'
She is using a specialist prosthetic skiing leg designed and built by Abdo Haidar of The London Prosthetic Centre. A painstaking, year-long project which involved over 15 appointments, the prosthesis has been designed to withstand the harshest of racing conditions.
Microprocessor-controlled leg puts Jims life back on track
A MAN who lost his leg after it was crushed in a folk lift has spoken out about the challenges of getting the right prosthetic that worked for him.
Jim Bruce, from Glasgow, was a keen gym-goer, football supporter and gardener, but a freak acccident in 1995 saw him injure his knee and shin so badly that he had to be amputated above the knee - despite the fact that his foot was uninjured.
Jim's first NHS leg used a hydraulic system which he found very tiring and often stumbled and fell. Later on in life, Jim found out about the C-Leg microprocessor knee from Ottobock from his active involvement in the amputee patient community and was given the opportunity to try it at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.
He said: 'I was lucky to be able to try it out and I was immediately impressed and knew it would improve my lifestyle significantly and let me get back to some of the activities I enjoyed prior to my amputation. I can be active again; I'm back at the gym and have a bluetooth remote control that lets me change the settings to use the treadmill or the rowing machine. I'm also having gait training which is helping me build up speed and pace and improve my walking pattern.'
A MAN who lost his leg after it was crushed in a folk lift has spoken out about the challenges of getting the right prosthetic that worked for him.
Jim Bruce, from Glasgow, was a keen gym-goer, football supporter and gardener, but a freak acccident in 1995 saw him injure his knee and shin so badly that he had to be amputated above the knee - despite the fact that his foot was uninjured.
Jim's first NHS leg used a hydraulic system which he found very tiring and often stumbled and fell. Later on in life, Jim found out about the C-Leg microprocessor knee from Ottobock from his active involvement in the amputee patient community and was given the opportunity to try it at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.
He said: 'I was lucky to be able to try it out and I was immediately impressed and knew it would improve my lifestyle significantly and let me get back to some of the activities I enjoyed prior to my amputation. I can be active again; I'm back at the gym and have a bluetooth remote control that lets me change the settings to use the treadmill or the rowing machine. I'm also having gait training which is helping me build up speed and pace and improve my walking pattern.'
Colorado man wears and controls modular prosthetic limbs
A COLARADO man recently became the first bilateral shoulder-level amputee to wear and simultaneously control two of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratories
Les Baugh, who lost both arms in an electrical accident 40 years ago, was able to operate the system by simply thinking about moving his limbs, performing a variety of tasks during a short training period.
Before putting the limb system through the paces, Les had to undergo a surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital known as targeted muscle reinnervation.
Johns Hopkins Trauma Surgeon Albert Chi, M.D explained: 'It's a relatively new surgical procedure that reassigns nerves that once controlled the arm and the hand.
'By reassigning existing nerves, we can make it possible for people who have had upper-arm amputations to control their prosthetic devices by merely thinking about the action they want to perform.'
A COLARADO man recently became the first bilateral shoulder-level amputee to wear and simultaneously control two of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratories
Les Baugh, who lost both arms in an electrical accident 40 years ago, was able to operate the system by simply thinking about moving his limbs, performing a variety of tasks during a short training period.
Before putting the limb system through the paces, Les had to undergo a surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital known as targeted muscle reinnervation.
Johns Hopkins Trauma Surgeon Albert Chi, M.D explained: 'It's a relatively new surgical procedure that reassigns nerves that once controlled the arm and the hand.
'By reassigning existing nerves, we can make it possible for people who have had upper-arm amputations to control their prosthetic devices by merely thinking about the action they want to perform.'
