It can take time for amputees to finally accept their limb loss. With a positive mindset, coupled with physical rehabilitation, and the right prosthetic devices, amputees can have a tremendous improvement in their quality of life. It’s also crucial that family and friends offer support to patients who may feel overwhelmed with the change.
Whether you’ve just started to consider a prosthetic arm or leg for yourself, or helping a loved one go through the journey, there are many questions you’ll have.
Learning to live with prosthetics can be a new way of freedom, and there are many benefits to help you live a good quality life.
How do prosthetics improve someone’s life?
A prosthetic is an artificial limb that replaces a missing body part. Its goal is to replace as much function of the original limb as possible. At the very least, a prosthetic should help an amputee take care of necessary daily activities such as eating, walking and being able to get dressed on their own.
Technology is continuously improving, and with the latest prosthetic advancements, people now can do almost everything they could before they lost their limb. There’s no shortage of inspirational stories where amputees with fitted prosthetics have improved their quality of life and achieve massive success in goals like running marathons and climbing mountains.
How have prosthetics affected society?
Before advanced prosthetics were created, people would have to deal with prosthetics that inhibited the user rather than helping them. Quality of life was poorer, and finding employment was quite difficult. With a well fitted and functional prosthetic device, regaining employment, supporting yourself and your family is not only possible but very common.
The economic benefits on society are associated with living independently, reducing costs on society in the loss of wages and reducing caregiving expenses which can put a tremendous strain on the economy.
How have prosthetics changed over the years?
History shows that the Ancient Egyptians were using artificial limbs dating back to 3000 years ago. Then through medieval times through to infamous pirate tales, there have been many adaptions around the advancement in prosthetics.
Before the 20th century, most people couldn’t afford to have prosthetics made, so they created their own out of a wooden chair or table legs, hence the term ‘peg leg’. Today, prosthetic devices have changed a lot, thanks to advances in technology, materials, and design.
Freedom Prosthetics have invested in advanced technologies (Omega® 3D carving machine and CAD-CAM 3D Scanner) to provide a full range of prosthetic and orthotic profiles including transtibial, transfemoral, cranial orthotics, spinal orthotics, ankle and foot orthoses.
For more information about the effectiveness and reliability of appropriate prosthetic care for patients at all activity levels, contact us today.
Freedom Prosthetics has prosthetic clinics in Cairns and Townsville, Australia.
