Dan Strzempka would be able to write a extravagant book with the inspiring stories of amputees he's helped during the past 27 years of his prosthetic career. Strzempka manages the Hanger Prosthetic and Orthotics and makes a living fabrication of custom fittings; mostly for people, from children with cancer to limping war veterans.
How Strzempka Started His Prosthetic Career
He gets all kinds of cases and heard most stories. He lost his own leg just above the knee in a lawnmower accident when he was age four. He began working at Hanger as a teenager. Today, at forty-one, he specializes in design innovation.
Challenge to Strzempka
In 2006 vice president of Hanger Kevin Carroll called him about designing a fake tail for a dolphin. Strzempka quickly agreed, even though the closest he had come to working with a nonhuman was crafting a splint for an injured dog.
Winter's Situation
By this time, the patient was a juvenile dolphin recovering from a crab trap entanglement in December 2005. The three month cetacean wound up losing its tail, known as its fluke, to infection. Her well being was stabilized by the staff of the nonprofit Clearwater Marine Aquarium, they adopted her and named her Winter.
Problem Facing Strzempka
The main problem was how they were going to keep the device on Winter and also so she wouldn't reject it. Strzempka and Carroll worked with a chemical engineer who produced a promising silicone elastomer bonding agent. Strzempka put it to the test on his own limb and played golf with it for three months. Satisfied he took the fluke, the protective linear and the sticky gel to where Winter was housed.
Strzempka Modified The Device
Strzempka made about fifteen design changes to the fluke before he came to it's current design. Winter doesn't wear her prosthesis 24/7, because dolphins release heat through their rear. Trainers attach the fack fluck twice a day, usually in two or three hour therapy workouts.
Winter's Changing Body
Winter's body has changed as she continues to build muscle, so Strzempka fits her with a new fluke every three of four months. The whole project was financed by Hanger Prosthetics to the tune of $200,000.
Now the glue - formally called WintersGel - is being used for artificial human limbs. Strzempka thought they would be helping the dolphin, but he's come to realize she's been helping them. She has done 50 to 100 times more for us than I could ever do for her. He takes everyone to see her. He says the movie, "Dolphin Tale," got it right.
Ross Carne - I am a Christian who writes. Holds a BA in Theology, and a MA in Teaching with 35 national and international magazine articles ...
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