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>> Kathy O'Bryan: Up until I was 22, I had a hook and it was very noticeable.
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The first week I got my my electric arm [phonetic], I remember walking
into an ice cream parlor with a friend of mine and not one person turned around to look at me.
And it was an incredible feeling and it was just such a different experience for me.
It made me feel a little more normal.
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>> Anita Liberman-Lampear: We've worked really hard as a team to make sure
that our patients can try to lead as good a quality of life as possible and so there's a lot
of pride in being able to do that.
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>> Jeff Wensman: One of the nice things here is with 100 year history, we've got devices here
that have been from 100 years ago.
I've seen pictures in the 1940s with people of wooden legs
with single hinged knees roller skating.
That's always been the goal is getting people back to their normal lives.
>> Anita Liberman-Lampear: When we started from 1912 until about the '50s,
our primary product was orthosis [phonetic].
The surgeon would call to the maintenance department and the janitor and whoever come,
and they would work together to try to make some kind of bracing system
for the different patients that he had.
[Music] Probably sometime in the late '20s,
early '30s they created what they named the Appliance Shop
and now we've then had a more formal space.
And then in the early '50s it became orthotics and prosthetics.
>> Dr. James A. Leonard, Jr.: The thing I remember distinctly about some
of those first prostheses was the individuals who had a prior prosthesis,
used to have to wear what looked like bandoliers of bullets
to give enough power to run their prosthesis.
>> Kathy O'Bryan: I was born with multiple limb deficiency.
Most notable would've been my right arm below my elbow, my right leg above the knee.
I've been coming to U of M for 45 years now.
The first day I got my new arm, I painted the fingernails 8 times
and I pushed up my sleeves like this.
That was my favorite thing to do and it still is one of my favorite things to do
because I had never been able to do that before.
>> Jeff Wensman: With all orthotics and prosthetics, it's really a matter
of matching the technology to that individual patient.
>> Jim Evans: It was in '74 I got my first one.
It was a wooden leg, weighed 18 pounds.
I didn't walk with it.
I drug it everywhere I went.
It was just there to support me basically.
I came up here.
I was, I think 22.
I had to get a new leg made because the one it was just falling apart.
I couldn't believe the change in technology.
I cried. It looked real.
It felt real and I thought I need to become part of this and they brought me in.
I've been [inaudible] since this was taken away from me.
>> Jeff Wensman: We have our own onsite lab to be able to mill and fabric their devices.
We have the ability to reach out to our engineering partners, kinesiology department,
all the different medical departments in the university to gain further knowledge
and to further refine what we are doing for our patients.
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>> Jim Evans: I like to be innovative.
I like to figure out how to make something that's not designed
to work one way, work one way.
>> Dr. James A Leonard, Jr.: Some of our orthotists [phonetic] have come
up with some very unique designs, the bray [phonetic] brace,
the Michigan silicone gel liner, and the latex
or the rubber sleeves suspension really drew people from all over the world here.
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>> Jim Evans: You don't want your patient who comes in a wheelchair,
we don't want them to go back out in a wheelchair.
You want them to come in a wheelchair, walk out of here.
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>> Nanette Hudson: I was diagnosed as a diabetic at age 35.
I've been coming here for 22 years.
When they brought the first pair of boots out to me, my husband looked at me as if to say oh,
dear but I thought to myself, no I'm not going to feel that way.
I'm going to be able to get up on my feet again and actually take steps and do for myself.
Thanks to U of M, I still have my feet and I can still walk.
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>> Kathy O'Bryan: They listen to you and that's huge.
That's a huge thing to feel like you're being heard by the people that are taking care of
and having really your independence and your freedom in their hands.
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>> Jim Evans: This is a special place.
I work with special people here.
You know special patients that come through and only as a team we get it done.
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>> Anita Liberman-Lampear: Here we are, 100 years later.
We're still providing patients with awesome experiences and we will until the future.
I see us here easily 100 years from now.
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