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PROVO — A new Utah company could put traditional crutches in the closet, for good.
The FlexLeg was designed by a Brigham Young University student and it's already showing a lot of promise, especially for the way it gives people with leg injuries the use of their hands again.
Provo mom Rebecca Snow found herself struggling to keep up after she took a fall on the ice during a morning run. She broke multiple bones in her leg and ankle. After a three-hour surgery and six weeks in bed, she found the FlexLeg. Snow's husband knew about the startup company and offered her as a test case.
"I run, I take my kids everywhere. I clean my house, I volunteer at my kids' school," Snow said. "I'm a mother. That's what I'm doing right now full time, so it was hard to remove myself from what was a really active life."
Michael Sanders outfitted Snow with a FlexLeg. He created the device. He said it all started when he saw a picture at school of a single amputee running.
I'm a mother. That's what I'm doing right now full time, so it was hard to remove myself from what was a really active life.
–Rebecca Snow
It took two years and nine or 10 prototypes before the final FlexLeg was finished.
"The biggest thing it's done for me is allowed me to use my hands," Snow said.
She showed KSL how easy it is to get around the house. She can go up and down the stairs and can even hold her son with one arm while pouring him a glass of milk with the other.
"I can walk around," she said. "I can go on walks with my children. I can do basic household duties. I can live, I think, the most normally, given what happened. It gives me a normal life."
Contributing: Stuart Johnson
