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Ed Yeates ReportingMany amputees tonight are getting their first look at a very flexible artificial leg that's attached directly to an implant in the bone. A patient from Sweden demonstrated how well it works.
Eric Ax from Sweden has had this prosthesis attached directly to an implant in his leg for the past six years.
Eric Ax, Patient Representative, Integrum Inc.: "I do biking, I do cover wing, I do horseback riding."
While the implant surgery has been performed overseas for the past twenty years, it has yet to come to this country. That's why Eric is here. He was talking with folks tonight in Salt Lake. Tomorrow, he joins his surgeon from Sweden for rounds at the University of Utah.
Eric Ax: "You have more feeling with the floor, if you walk on the carpet or on a hard surface, you have a feeling of what you're walking on. So you have better control."
Tom Andrews has the same new generation model prosthesis as Eric, but it's how they're attached that's different. Tom's leg fits externally with a socket and a cuff that goes all the way up to the groin. Eric's is attached to a permanent implant in his bone. He has more flexibility in how he moves his leg. Tom is still limited.
The conventional prosthetic leg that Eric use to wear is now uncomfortable when he puts it on.
Eric Ax: "I go back to the wheelchair before I go back to this."
It appears the Department of Defense may now be the moving force that will bring these implants to this country, in a mandate with five years.
Tom Andrews, Ability Prosthetics: "To put these prosthetics on a soldier and let them go back into combat if he wants to."
