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Home , Cowboy, Pickup rider

SAMPSON’S PROSTHETIC & ORTHOTIC LABORATORY

WINTER 2010

CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION IN THE PROSTHETIC ORTHOTIC WORLD

Ride ‘Em Amputation doesn’t keep Jason K. from his passion of bronc busting

Take one determined cowboy, one That’s exactly what Jason K. was , a judge’s score that doing at the Ballston Spa in counts points for the horse’s bucking 2006, riding perfectly and winning his action and the rider’s technical expertise, event, when his horse ran into a steel and you have the makings of classic fence, pile driving Jason’s leg into the rodeo . The ride lasts abutment and resulting – eventually – in only eight seconds, but in that eight an amputation. seconds, the bronc is lunging, twisting, Following multiple unsuccessful turning while the rider concentrates on surgeries to reconstruct his shattered technique that includes only one leg, ankle, and foot, Jason had to weigh on the and the free hand not his options. Because his injuries were touching any part of the horse. On the so extensive, his weren’t healing; Out of the chute at the Kimball Rodeo first move out of the chute, the rider in fact, they remained broken. “The in . Jason hangs on for the required must make sure his feet are over the bones wouldn’t come together and I eight-second ride. bronc’s shoulders, followed in a split couldn’t walk at all,” he said. “I saw second by knees bent behind as the a specialist in New York City who said boots strike I could undergo a months-long limb- different time frame for the post- An amputation didn’t stop the cantle on lengthening process, the Ilizarov method, amputation healing process, Jason’s was Jason K. from saddle bronc the back of of which I would have only a 25 percent exceptionally quick. Thirteen days after riding. the saddle; chance of success. When I was told that surgery he was being fitted for his first then feet back after an amputation, I could be walking test socket. to the horse’s (within weeks), I chose amputation.” That same day, a rodeo associate shoulder as The New York orthopedic specialist in Arizona who did not know about the the animal’s recommended Dr. David Dixon in Albany amputation, invited Jason to participate front feet hit to do the amputation. “Dr. Dixon is in a roping championship. Initially Jason the ground. the best surgeon I ever met,” he said, declined the offer, but the more he After the noting that injuries from the rodeo circuit thought about it, the more he wanted required eight brought him into contact with a number to do it. seconds, the of surgeons. “I have no problems with “I was second in the national rider must my residual limb.” (professional rodeo riders) standings jump off After amputation, Jason was at the time (of my amputation) and I the horse referred to Sampson’s and now is a had it in mind that this wasn’t going to (because the patient of Brian Clark, CPO. “Brian is stop me,” he said. “I asked Sampson’s horse doesn’t amazing,” he said. “And Bill (Sampson, to make my leg as hard as possible so calmly come CP) is a great guy and knows what he’s I could go out and ride. They strongly to a stop) or talking about.” urged me not to, but they did wrap my jump to a leg in fiberglass. So 17 days after surgery ’s Back in the Saddle Again I got on a plane and went to Arizona mount. Although every patient has a continues on next page continued from front page and ranching are this family’s showcase skills that working ranch history hands or cowboys need to do – and placed third in the competition. Jason started in rodeos at a young branding and doctoring, , At that point, I decided I could do just age, while growing up on the family trailer loading, and, about anything I wanted.” farm. of course, bronc riding. Although he opted out of rodeo “The farm hands would often go to “I have been training colts here in competition, he continued to ride and a rodeo on Friday nights and one night for the past four months and work his ranch near Saratoga Springs. I went with them and they put me on figured that if I can ride these young “My ankle doesn’t flex, but my leg a ,” he said. “I kept until bucking fools in training then I could muscles are still strong enough to ride. I was 25, which was when my sternum compete in professional rodeo once When you are riding, you’re using your was crushed after being thrown. I spent again,” he said. upper body and upper legs,” he said. a year in traction and then switched to But just prior to his return to the “Jason’s probably one of the most bucking . I’ve been doing that for arena, Jason experienced a flash of active amputees I’ve worked with,” 17 years.” doubt. said Brian. “He spends most of his day Rodeo is also in the blood of “I hadn’t been on a bronc in three on horseback and jumping on and off Jason’s five children. His 21 year old years, and when I was in the chute, a horses. He truly puts the prosthesis to a son, currently in the Air Force, is a team wave of fear came over me. I almost test.” roper; a daughter, 17, rides barrel horses; got off, but I told myself that I can do Jason’s prosthesis is a basic shuttle a son, 16, team races; a daughter, 14, this,” he said. “It was a huge mental lock/pin suspension and a carbon fiber does ; and a daughter, and physical accomplishment to be foot with a multi-adjustable ankle, which 5, is working on her riding skills. able to get back into the chute again accommodates the heel heights of his after such a horrifying accident. My -style boots. “I have a normal gait and I can walk on soft dirt, over rocks, and uphill. No No one knows I’m an one knows I’m an amputee unless I tell amputee unless I tell them. I them,” he said. “I have retrained myself have retrained myself to do to do all the things I did before.” Earlier this year, Jason moved all the things I did before. to Nebraska where he trains horses for clients there and in Colorado and - Jason K. . Endolite Brio Adjustable Ankle Rigorous activity such as that means that Jason is especially hard on his heart was pounding the first time but prosthesis. “I blow the toe out in about when the chute gate flew open it was a week,” he said, referring to the inner as if I had never left. Getting off was workings of his foot that wear through a more difficult and somewhat to the outer cosmetic foot shell. comical. Since I can’t feel my foot I Since Jason is more than 1,500 wasn’t sure if it was out of the miles from Albany, he has become in order to get off. When riding adept at adjusting and repairing his bucking horses in order to get off you own prosthesis. “I have a background in either jump off or grab onto one of mechanical engineering, so I can figure the two pickup riders and pull yourself out how to make adjustments,” he said. After hiatus, competing once again off. Since I didn’t have a safe place to “A patient adjusting his Although it is has been three years jump I decided to grab my pickup man own prosthesis is typically not since Jason competed professionally, and slide off onto his horse. In doing recommended,” said Brian. “But Jason the rodeo bug has bitten him again. “I so, I actually had to pull my entire leg is mechanically adept and because he’s can’t stop doing what I love to do,” he up while still in my saddle, as the horse often in remote locations, he is able to said. He now is a member of a Ranch was still bucking, to see that my foot fine-tune his prosthesis.” Rodeo team in Kimball. Ranch rodeos was out of the stirrup.”

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