[s-cars] NAC: motorcycle accident

Tom Winter tom at freeskier.com
Sat Aug 12 20:52:32 EDT 2006


Lee and everyone else.

I only relate this story to prove a point that if your brother in law is
tough, many, many things are possible with one leg.

A friend - Brian Bartlett - was unloading his pickup truck in Seattle when a
teenage driver slammed into the back of the truck. The accident severed his
leg, and if he hadn't been only a few blocks from the hospital, he would
have bled to death.

I didn't know Brian when he had the accident, I met him when he was
competing (on one leg, with ski poles, not "outriggers") at an extreme
skiing competition I organized at the now defunct Berthoud Pass ski area in
Colorado.

He beat many of the two-legged athletes there.

I later worked with Brian on a Powder Magazine feature about Vail 5 or 6
years ago. I carried his prosthetic in my pack, and he put it on to climb
into an out-of-bounds area called the East Vail chutes. A recent storm had
dumped more than 3 feet of new snow, and while it took us a bit longer on
the hike than usual, he did it. The terrain back there is steep, and with
large cliffs. Needless to say at the top, he took off the fake leg, put his
ski on, dropped in and he charged it: hitting 20-30 foot cliffs on the way
down, on one leg.

In addition to skiing, he was a competitive mountain biker. His big problem
was that he kept destroying his prosthetic leg because the people who build
those legs don't build them for active individuals. For most of their
clients, it's enough to walk.

But for some, they're not going to be satisfied with merely walking.

I would expect your brother in law to be one of these individuals.

Have him tell the PT guys to make him a tough leg because he's not planning
on slowing down! And share Brian's story with him:

http://www.dwt.com/practc/life_sciences/patents/07-06_Bartlett.htm

Tom



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