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The Cup of African Nations for Amputee Football (CANAF) concluded last month in Ghana, and Liberia won the tournament by defeating Ghana in the final game 4-2. Link -via Buzzfeed
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It has to be the toughest decision anyone could make, but a man has decided to voluntarily amputate his hand. However this looks like a better alternative as he is going to replace his damaged limb with a bionic one.
An Austrian man has voluntarily had his hand amputated so he can be fitted with a bionic limb. The patient, called “Milo”, aged 26, lost the use of his right hand in a motorcycle accident a decade ago. After his stump heals in several weeks’ time, he will be fitted with a bionic hand which will be controlled by nerve signals in his own arm.
Update: Also check out this great video of Milo using his new hand: Video Link
Doug Forbis is in a graduate education program and has done some student teaching. He aspires to be a physical education teacher for children with special needs. Forbis believe he can offer encouragement because he’s an athlete -despite having no legs.
“It’s so rare for kids with special needs to have a teacher with special needs — that almost never happens,” he said. “I think it would help a lot for these special need kids to say, ‘Look, Mr. Forbis is a teacher, I can do that, too. He lives by himself, gets around town, goes shopping, I can do that, too.’ A lot of kids don’t know that’s an option. They just depend on the system their whole lives.”
Forbis has participated in swimming, basketball, and track in leagues for disabled people. His professors say he has a talent for talking to children. Link -via Fortean Times
(Image credit: Barcroft/Fame)
A Massachusetts man is being hailed a hero for lending a leg when people were in need.
Steve Cornell was using an ATM, at a Middleton store last night, when he saw a man inside pointing a gun at the stores manager.
When the gunman ran out the door, Cornell tripped him, giving the manager enough time to tackle the man.
What makes Cornell’s actions even more impressive is that he has an artificial leg.
Steve Cornell said he did what anyone would do, but I don’t think that’s true. Would you be willing to lend a hand (or a leg) to help someone? Just something to think about.
Twenty-seven-year-old Johno Lee, a British veteran of the war in Afghanistan, applied for and was denied a disabled parking permit three times. Meanwhile, he racked up £800 in fines for parking in reserved spots so he could unload his wheelchair.
Lance-corporal Lee, from Coddington, said when he first applied to Nottinghamshire County Council for a blue badge he was advised he was young and ‘may get better.’
His right leg was amputated below the knee after he was caught up in an explosion in Helmand Province in 2008.
He said: “I replied that they possibly didn’t quite understand the situation and that I thought it unlikely that my leg would grow back.
After the local newspaper the Newark Advertiser heard of his story, a reporter contacted officials who are now looking into the matter. The fines already levied against Lee have been rescinded. Link -via Arbroath
Champion skier and author Josh Sundquist {wiki} busts some rhymes about his handy crutches, his expensive prosthesis, and his great parking space. -via Unique Daily
Let me just get to the story:
Smith said the argument escalated after "I turned on the TV and she got mad."
"She punched me in the groin," Smith said. He said Bell also hit him with a coffee canister and a bedpan.
"It was full of pee," he said.
In response, Smith said, "I hit her once and that was it. Maybe twice."
Although Bell had both hands and part of both legs amputated because of a childhood illness, Smith said, she can still be violent when she loses her temper.
"She’ll swing, push me down and choke me with her nubs," Smith said. He said she also hit him with her wheelchair.
Sure it started off violent, but there are wedding bells at the end.
Bell agreed Monday that there was hitting on both sides. She said she plans to marry Smith and doesn’t want him to serve jail time.
Tailor made for a Hollywood movie, I say. That or Jerry Springer.
This video shows a wild bear with three legs. Presumably it was born without a front leg or lost it later in life. The bear gets up on his hind legs and walks like a human. Is it real or fake?
via Urlesque
When Alistair Hodgson was 21, he was a British paratrooper stationed in Northern Ireland. A booby trap exploded and tore him apart. His horrific injuries healed, except for the leg that was blown off and the other leg which had to be amputated. That was 17 years ago. Now Hodgson is the British National Freestyle Skydiving Champion. Besides training in his sport and coaching other skydivers, Hodgson works to inspire other disabled vets returning from Afghanistan.
“It’s so hard. But you have to rehabilitate yourself, find a focus…something to hold on to. If I can inspire just one other person to lift themselves out of that same dark place I was in – train for the Paralympics in 2012 or something, then it’s worth it.
“There was a time I thought my life was over and I still have very dark times when it’s difficult to deal with. Sometimes people poke fun at me or I catch sight of myself in a mirror and think, ‘You’re in a hell of a mess’.
“But when I’m in the air it’s like it never happened. I can compete at a world level – alongside people who have all their limbs – and have found a way to fly.”
Hodgson will compete against able-bodied skydivers for the world championship in August. Link -via Fark
Sarah Reinertsen was born with a birth defect called proximal femoral focal deficiency. Her left leg was small, and wouldn’t grow with the rest of her body, so it was amputated when she was seven years old. Still, she always wanted to be an athlete. Reinertsen began running at age eleven, and competed in the Paralympics at age 16. In college, she started running marathons, but that wasn’t enough.
She is the first female amputee to win an Ironman competition. She climbed the Great Wall of China and scaled a giant cliff in Vietnam during the 10th season of the CBS television show The Amazing Race. And when she’s not running or biking or swimming, she’s trying on artificial limbs to test the latest body armor for a company that makes prosthetics. She also rallies soldiers who have lost their limbs to war. She is a hometown hero talking to runners who have known her since she was an 11-year-old who climbed into a sneaker and began running for her life.
Read more of Reinertsen’s story for a real inspiration. Link -via Digg
Ellie May Challis of Little Clacton, Essex, England battled meningitis as an infant. She recovered, but her arms and legs had to be amputated. She has since used normal prosthetic legs which were were painful and slow. Now five years old, Ellie has new carbon framed legs, the kind amputee sprinters use.
She was fitted with them three weeks ago – making her the youngest person in the world to have the £10,000 a pair special limbs.
Paul Challis, 45, said: “Ellie can walk twice as fast on these new legs. She is so full of determination.”
The company’s managing director Bob Watts said: “We had to make them especially for Ellie as they had never been made this small before. We were worried that she wouldn’t be able to balance properly on them, but she has made amazing progress.
Ellie’s legs will be replaced every two years as she grows. Link -via Arbroath
When she was a child, Nadya Vessey’s legs were amputated below the knee due to illness. One time, another child asked what happened to her legs, and she replied that she was a mermaid.
She couldn’t get the mermaid idea out of her head, so she wrote to the company that created the special effects for the Lord of the Rings movies as well as King Kong and The Chronicles of Narnia.
Her request: Will you make me a mermaid tail?
The company, Weta Workshop in Wellington, New Zealand, agreed.
Two years later, she now has a fully functioning mermaid tail with an attached suit, making her look like a real mermaid.
(image credit: Stuff.co.nz)
From the Upcoming 
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