Prosthetic technology continues to improve

Prosthetic technology continues to improve
By Joe Gould - Staff writer
Posted : Monday May 14, 2012

Staff Sgt. Billy Costello lost his right leg to an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan last fall, but the list of sports he’s pursuing this year might make a person with both legs dizzy: Running, snowboarding, surfing and scuba diving.

“They say the technology’s there to get you back to where you used to be,” said Costello, 30, of 3rd Special Forces Group. “It’s very possible. You just have to make calls and see who’s done what already.”

Costello, an above-the-knee amputee at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, plans to do all this with a new generation of artificial leg that is powered by its own internal battery and intuits a user’s movements using an onboard computer.

Dr. Charles Scoville, chief of amputee services in the orthopedics and rehabilitation department, said such prosthetics have been tested since 2009 and have recently become available for most amputees there, affording them more mobility and less strain on muscles and joints.

“It’s only been in the last six months that we’ve really started to fit it this way,” Scoville said. “We’re now incorporating it as part of our standard of care versus just seeing how it works.”
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