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Utah's Bryant Jacobs is among 10 amputee veterans who last week were the first in the United States to undergo a risky surgery that, they hope, is the first step toward making life with a prosthetic limb closer to normal.
The former soldiers had titanium posts implanted in their legs this week at the Veterans Affairs Salt Lake City Health Care System. Currently, prosthetic limbs function like a loose ski boot. A series of surgeries will give patients a "robot leg" that communicates to the brain through vibrations from the implant to the bone, surgeon Erik Kubiak said in a Friday news conference.
Kubiak hopes that one day, the procedure can benefit diabetics and other amputees. But it's too early to tell. This wave of patients is participating in a study that's paid for by grants, the Department of Defense, the VA and a prosthetics company, and will return in mid-January for a follow-up trip to the operating room.
The whole story of the procedure's success or failure, Kubiak said, "won't be told for many years" until its longterm effect is clear.
"We don't feel like this was a success on Monday," he added, "unless we see people functioning with their implants ... years down the line."
Infection is a possibility, but it did not deter Jacobs from participating in the study, the Herriman native said last week. "I'm stoked."
—Annie Knox