Traditional MPKs, such as the widely used C-Leg (which launched in 1997), are passive devices. They use a microprocessor to control hydraulic or pneumatic resistance. They will stop you from falling, and they adjust to your walking speed, but they do not generate movement. You still have to use your hips and core to swing the leg forward and push yourself up stairs.
Powered MPKs go a step further. They supply the kinetic energy that was lost following an amputation. While a traditional MPK requires you to pull yourself up a flight of stairs step-by-step, a powered knee actively lifts you up to the next tread.
Technological advancement has continued to explode as the decades pass, with something new and exciting growing weekly. The field of prosthetics has not been immune to these improvements, either, seeing significant advancements that improve not only the accessibility of prosthetics but also their capability and safety.
From the time he was a young child who experienced a playground incident that gave him whiplash and a neck injury, Jerry Cronin had also been subject to periods of lower back pain that he took in stride, as a normal part of life. But increasing problems with herniated disks and more frequent bouts of increasingly intense pain through his teens and college years finally brought him, at age 35, to emergency surgery, partial paralysis, and the opportunity to become the youngest individual to try out a state of the art orthotronic solution–-and one that worked beyond his most hopeful expectations!
Kenneth L. Scott, Sgt. USMC Retired, is also a 100% Disabled War Veteran who fought in the Gulf War during Desert Shield/Desert Storm, was stationed in the Philippines during the 1989 Philippine coup, and has completed intense training and missions all over the world. As a result, he has already grappled with a variety of challenges and medical issues, including neurological damage, exposure to NBC (Nuclear Biological and Chemical) warfare and blunt force trauma that resulted in total blindness in his right eye. No stranger to adversity, Scott casually dismisses those trials as “a lot of mini-surgeries—just way too many things to count”—and is enthusiastic about telling a tale of triumph, instead.
Although every patient is unique, with individual issues, conditions, preferences and needs like no other, Pennsylvania hairdresser Grace Corbitt presented Lawall orthotist Juan Cave with a challenge that required him to think even further outside the box than usual in developing a custom designed orthotic solution.
