Christopher
Won’s new Ottobock prosthetic has a microprocessor knee that is controlled by an app and has 12 preset settings for different activities. While at Barber Prosthetics, prosthetist Leah Campbell helped Won through different scenarios, including going up and down stairs and walking on inclines. Photo by Jason Payne /PNG
Excerpt from The Vancouver Sun:
Using forearm crutches called outriggers, Won manoeuvred himself up a slope, took a breath, and pushed off, sliding down smoothly and executing a turn at the end.
“Way to go!” cheered Won’s wife, Marie Hui.
In the before era — before an emergency above-the-knee amputation last February changed their lives, before a gruelling year filled with doctors’ appointments, rehab, physiotherapy and counselling sessions, and the relearning of simple daily activities — Won and Hui were regulars on the local Vancouver mountains, carving powder on exhilarating runs on their snowboards.
As a snowboarder, Won hadn’t skied in more than three decades, but the Sunday evening adaptive ski lesson in January was available and the Vancouver couple wanted to return to the mountains as soon as possible — part of a new year’s goal to try to pursue as many of their previous passions as they can.
“Let’s just try,” Hui had said.
It’s an ethos they now live by after Won picked up an aggressive bacteria that ravaged the tissues, muscles and fat of his lower right leg during a family vacation in Asia.
To this day, Won doesn’t know how he contracted necrotizing fasciitis, also known as flesh-eating disease. He had no cuts, no scrapes, no particularly memorable insect bite.
“I have no idea. We don’t know. We never will,” said Won, 54, the assistant fire chief in charge of training at Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services. “The reality is: It has happened and there’s nothing to be gained from knowing how.
“The whys and the hows would drive you crazy if you keep thinking about it.”
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Read the full article at https://vancouversun.com/feature/vancouver-bc-firefighter-loses-leg-flesh-eating-disease-vacation
