Cameron in Beijing!

Friday
Today we were on the afternoon shift giving us the chance for a much needed sleep in.  Lunch with the athletes has been getting busier every day as the last of the countries arrive in the village. 

The guys that had remained at the workshop last night had had the organizing committee BOCOG knocking on the door asking for the technicians to design and create mounts for wheelchairs to hold the Paralympic torch in a ceremony early in the morning.  A little bit more notice would have been appreciated as the guys were working on them until 1am in the morning! 

The workshop was busy in the afternoon made worse by the American sprint team’s arrival.  Marlin Shirley and Brian Fraser the two fastest men on one leg turned up with their Prosthetist Scott Sabolich.  They decided that it would be fine for them to take over the workshop as if it were there own and rebuild their sprint legs.  Marlin Shirley had cracked his attachment plate at a meet month ago and it had been re-laminated with carbon.  Now only 2 days before competitions began he decides it is time to make a brand new socket that is lighter.  Brian Fraser was concerned because he believed bolts in his attachment plate were stripped and set about molding a new one in.  It was very strange to me that these athletes at the top of their field had arrived in Beijing with prostheses they were not 100% happy with and were willing to risk everything that they were used to in the hope of dropping a few grams out of their sockets.  It also frustrated me that they took the workshop over as if it were there own when other athletes were no allowed entry.

After another major wheelchair repair, an athlete from Madagascar arrived with a foot that had just broken and that he wanted us to repair.  His Prostheses was the oldest, most worn and uncomfortable looking prostheses I had ever seen.

It was made from aluminium, had an ancient lock knee and the foot was just bolted into the aluminium. It had been welded numerous times and the socket was made out of leather with a huge piece of steel protruding anteriorly – ouch.  We considered trying to attach a new foot to this leg but the time it would take and the state of the rest of the prostheses led us to make him a whole new leg. 

Making new prostheses was not done at previous Paralympics and was the second leg the workshop would produce.  We asked him through a translator would he like us to make him a new leg and after we explained that he would not need to pay for it his eyes lit up and a big grin appeared on his face.  I cast his extremely short stump (almost a hip disarticulation) around 9pm and modified the cast until the workshop closed around 11pm.

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