From the New York Times:

An innovative procedure described on Tuesday in the online edition of The Journal of the American Medical Association gives people a new kind of prosthetic arm that can be controlled by their thoughts.

Amanda Kitts, 40, who lost her arm in a car accident three years ago, uses the arm to do tasks like playing football with her 12-year-old son and tying shoes at one of the day care center she owns in Knoxville, TN.

Daniel Acosta, 25, an airman injured by a roadside explosive in Iraq in 2005, had the procedure last year, and said his prosthetic left arm now moved “a lot faster” and more naturally. “The difference is I’m not really thinking about it,” said Mr. Acosta, of San Antonio said. “I kind of just do it.”

(New York Times photo)

Extended feature from the New York Times:

College student Kelli Whitescarver had her left hand amputated last month after she was injured in a car accident. At first, all seemed bleak. Then she met Kevin Laue, a 6-foot-10 college basketball prospect who was born with no left hand.

“He made me realize there’s nothing I can’t do,” Whitescarver says. “This has all been so hard, but I feel like I can keep going.” Says Laue, “I guarantee she’ll be fine, and I hope anyone else in her situation knows that, too.”

(New York Times photos)

Video from the New York Times:

There are roughly 1 million people with disabilities in Afghanistan, most of them victims of war. Many cannot find work and must beg on the streets to support themselves. State hospitals cannot afford to treat them, so they rely instead on people like Alberto Cairo (above), an Italian physiotherapist who has been running a Red Cross center in Afghanistan for almost two decades. Cairo employs people with disabilities to make prosthetic devices.

Says Cairo: “I am not a very deep thinker. I think there are people who are happy if I stay, so I want to stay.”

By Patricia E. Bauer

Just when you think you’ve heard it all, people come up with some new ones. Questions, that is — about Sarah Palin’s baby son, Trig Paxson Van Palin, who has Down syndrome (at left with sister Piper at the Republican National Convention). Here are answers to some common questions.

1)  Down syndrome — that’s really bad, right? Doesn’t that mean he’s sickly and won’t live very long?

First of all, let’s think about this baby as just that — a baby. People with Down syndrome vary widely, and each has a unique personality, temperament, and combination of strengths and challenges. We haven’t been told anything about Trig’s health status yet, except that he has Down syndrome.

In general, people with Down syndrome have some degree of mild to moderate intellectual disability and have a higher risk for a variety of health problems, particularly heart trouble. At the same time their life expectancies have increased dramatically, from an average of about 9 years in the 1920s, to something reaching into the 60s today. (See my post here on Bert Holbrook Jr. of Waseca County, Minnesota, who just celebrated his 80th birthday.)

As recently as the 1960s, people didn’t know that people with Down syndrome were capable of learning, and sent them to institutions where they were most often neglected or abused. Most of the very negative images about them, and the worst health outcomes, date from that time.

With the improvements in education and health care of the last few decades, it’s not unreasonable to expect that children with Down syndrome born today can enjoy full, rich lives, form satisfying relationships, and gain skills that will allow them to work and make positive contributions to their families and communities.

2) If Palin opposes abortion rights, as she says, why did she have an amnio? Wasn’t that a waste of money?

Many women who oppose abortion nonetheless have prenatal testing so they can get information that may be useful in planning for their baby’s delivery and care. Gov. Palin has said she was glad to receive Trig’s diagnosis before he was born so she could learn about Down syndrome and come to terms with her son’s disability before she met him.

3) Ninety percent of American women who get a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome get an abortion. Doesn’t that prove people with Down syndrome have terrible lives?

Actually, no. People with Down syndrome are valued, valuable and contributing members of happy families. Their families report deep attachment to their children, and are saddened by those abortion statistics. Family members attribute the numbers to widespread public ignorance about people with Down syndrome; doctors who lack current information and aren’t well-trained to deliver prenatal diagnoses; lingering fears and stigma left over from the days when these people were institutionalized under horrible conditions; and unrealistic desires for the “perfect child.” See also this post.

(more…)

From the Boston Globe:

First, classroom teacher Maggie Doben developed a curriculum to help elementary school students understand physical disabilities. Then she made a documentary film about the process, “Labeled Disabled,” that shows how personal interactions with people with disabilities can help kids put aside preconceptions, stigma and fear.

Along the way, kids ask tough questions and get unexpected answers. For instance:

If you could wake up tomorrow and be able to see (hear, walk, etc.), would you want that?

Most often, the answer is a resounding “no.”

Among the visitors to her classroom are people who talk firsthand about paralysis, blindness, deafness, about being little people or having a prosthetic leg. They’re satisfied with their lives, and able to do everything anyone else can do — although perhaps in a different way.

Doben’s goal: To help the kids move past cultural stigmas and respect all people.

(Graphic from labeleddisabledfilm.com)

From AP/USA Today, Chicago Tribune, youtube.com:

Tammy Duckworth, an Army helicopter pilot who lost both legs and injured an arm in Iraq, walked onstage on prosthetic legs at the Democratic convention to castigate Republican John McCain for backing an administration that has “let our warriors down.”

“Our troops are courageous, strong, fierce. This administration has redeployed them until they are overstretched, stressed and strained,” said Duckworth, now director of the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

Duckworth is among those rumored as a possible appointee to Obama’s Senate seat if he becomes president.

By Rick Reilly in ESPN The Magazine; earlier story from KDKA TV in Pittsburgh:

Lawyer Craig Dietz swam in the Pittsburgh Triathlon recently as part of a three-man relay team he called Bob (at left). He came in 273rd out of 308 swimmers, which meant he beat 35 people who had all their arms and legs.

Dietz was born without limbs as a result of a “genetic fluke,” has great friends and a great sense of humor. An excerpt:

Stare at him if you want. He’s past caring. He’s got too much to do. He works as a lawyer for the city of Pittsburgh. He bowls, skis, hunts (bagged an eight-point buck once), fishes, kicks butt at mini golf, plays volleyball (hits the ball off his head), jams on the drums, has a girlfriend and drives his own van (with a fake license plate that reads, look, mom! no hands!). Mostly, he makes you feel like a worthless, prechewed slab of meat, wasting your able-bodied life eating Cheetos and watching Tila Tequila.

Dietz says he doesn’t want to be anybody’s inspiration.

A video of Dietz can be seen on the KDKA site here.

(Photo from ESPN the Magazine)