Dancing with the Amputee Star...

I've avoided watching Dancing with the Stars. I have successfully avoided watching not only this season, but most seasons. Sure, I've seen an episode here and there, but for the most part, I'm simply not interested. That being said, tonight there's not much to watch and I found myself watching Amy Purdy's dance. She was amazing, for those who aren't familiar. Amy Purdy is a Paraolympian Snow Boarder who happens to be a bilateral below knee amputee. What struck me the most was the buildup to her dancing, and her decision to perform the quick-step with her "blades." Blades are the running legs most people are familiar with seeing, and for some reason the image most people associate with prosthetics.

Amy Purdy on "Cheetah" running blades



What I noticed is that she had several other pairs of prosthetic feet to choose from, in addition to the running blades. I realize that she is a gold medal winning Olympian and has several sponsors who are willing to pay for these prosthesis. I found myself getting upset. No, not upset, down right mad. Not at Amy Purdy, mind you, at the fact that in order to receive the prosthesis you need to live you have to either 1.)Be independently wealthy, 2.) Be extraordinary and have sponsors who want you to wear their prosthesis, 3.) Fight tooth and nail with insurance companies to "maybe" get a prosthetic...not the best one to let you live life again, no just a prosthetic.

I nearly found myself in the 3rd category, but thanks to those of you who read this blog, and, as I was described by Dr Larry Chu at Stanford Medicine X, being persistently disruptive for a positive change in the amputee community, I was able to pressure an insurance company into covering a prosthetic they deemed "Experimental." By the way, Experimental is an insurance term for prosthetic technology that has been around since the 1990's, being the microprocessor controlled prosthesis. There are nearly 2 million people with some sort of limb loss currently, not everyone of these amputees would benefit from this technology, but for those that would, it is a life changing prosthetic.

Imagine this...for an insurance premium of around 5 cents per person, microprocessor controlled prosthesis would be covered for those who meet the standard. That would be possibly hundreds of thousands of people able to return to a more active lifestyle and many of them would return to work.

Now for contrast, lets apply insurance companies logic to other areas of healthcare. Could you imagine an insurance company denying a pacemaker that a cardiologist wants to implant? How about denying the hardware for a hip replacement? Yes, these happen in rare occasions, but under normal circumstance these devices are implanted and covered. Now, realize that these are also prosthetics. A pacemaker is a prosthetic that assumes the function that the heart has lost the ability to perform, a hip replacement places a prosthetic ball and socket joint that resumes function of a joint that lost it's ability to perform the normal function. Now, why does implantation inside the body make these more important than a hand, knee, ankle, or other prosthetic device? I wish I had an answer...that's why we need Insurance Fairness for Amputees.

Oh well,

I will step down off of my soap box for tonight and hope this has given you something to consider.


Until Next Time ...PM