9-year-old to get new foot

The Burton Middle School “Odyssey of the Mind” team, which built a couple of prosthetic hands for 9-year-old Matthew Lane who was born without hands and only one foot, is seeing to it that another one of his wishes is granted.

Prior to April, Matthew used to write by holding a pencil between his wrist stumps. After hearing about the young boy’s situation, the Odyssey of the Mind team worked on a solution and built a couple of devices to help him write, eat, and shoot a water-squirting device.

But after the team presented Matthew with his new hands, he had another request.

“I want a foot I can swim in,” Matthew said. “I like to swim all summer long. My best friend, Jeremiah, has a swimming pool and I like to go to his house and we like to swim all the time.”

On Monday, Matthew and four of the six Odessey team members — Coral Gardner, Nicolas Garcia, Darion Zamora and Zeng Cha — spent the morning at Hanger Prosthetics and Orthotics in Visalia.

The young students watched as certified prosthetist John Wettstein evaluated and measured Matthew’s foot stump.

“We are making him a swim foot,” Zamora said, as he demonstrated with his hand. “Because to swim, you need your foot to [extend] like this, but when you walk or stand, you need your foot to [flex] like this,” he demonstrated.

As the students continued to watch, Wettstein painted Matthew’s left leg with Vaseline petroleum jelly prior to placing a special sock on his leg and covering it with gauze soaked in plaster solution.

“We will mold up his leg and stump, it’s like a negative,” Wettstein said. “When I take this off, I will then fill it with plaster and have a positive mold. I will use the positive mold to make a socket.”

After the plaster hardened, Wettstein used a cast cutter to remove it.

“Matthew’s leg is so long that there is very little room between his good leg and his deformity,” Wettstein said. “We have only two inches to place a foot and an ankle that we are hoping to have in two positions — for walking and swimming. We may have to look at other options. We can make one that he can go into the water and ocean with, but not one in a position to walk.”
Wettstein was hoping for a foot that could do more than swim.

“We can have it in a position that allows him [to swim] but that’s not all he needs,” Wettstein said. “He’s running around and playing Marco Polo and jumping off the side.”

Wettstein said the team should think about it and return on Wednesday, when they would continue with the process of making the socket by draping a melting hard plastic over the positive mold that was created Monday.

After listening to the procedure, Zamora called the process mind-boggling. Cha and Garcia said they are grateful for their legs and feet and excited to know that people born without them, or who have lost them, could have prosthetics built.

“I’m really excited about this,” Matthew said. “Soon I’ll be swimming every day with my best friend Jeremiah.”