Twenty-nine percent of amputations endured by Army and Marine personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan involve arms and hands, and a small Boulder company is helping to ease the recovery process.
Therapeutic Recreation Systems Inc. designs and manufactures 50 different types of body-powered prosthetic devices for infants, children and adults. TRS also specializes in prostheses that enable individuals to pursue a variety of recreational activities, such as basketball, baseball, archery and skiing.
The privately held company was founded in 1980 by Bob Radocy, who lost his left hand in an auto accident in 1971. TRS focuses exclusively on upper-body prostheses and has five employees.
Over the past 18 months, TRS has provided an increasing number of its products to soldiers injured in the Middle East, Radocy said.
“It’s been a growing segment of our business to serve veterans, because of the amount of injuries we’re seeing during wartime,” he said. “That’s true across the board for prosthetic companies.”
Still, only 4 percent to 5 percent of TRS’ business comes from military amputees, Radocy said, with 50 percent coming from sales of prosthetic devices to infants and children.
Radocy said more upper-body injuries have been sustained in the war in Iraq than in any other war, as better body armor is saving soldiers’ lives.
“They’re able to sustain the explosion and shock because they have body armor on,” Radocy said. “Years ago (the explosions) would be killing them, but they’re still losing part of their limbs.”
Officials at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the primary hospital for Army and Marine amputees, say amputation statistics are unavailable for previous wars. As of the end of June, 297 amputee patients were treated in Army facilities, with Walter Reed treating 258, according to Bill Swisher, a hospital spokesman.
“Fifty percent of the amputee patients we’ve seen would not have survived previous wars,” he said.
TRS recently supplied a hand prosthesis to a sergeant at Walter Reed that would make it easier for him to do push-ups. The hand, called the “sports hand,” was designed in 1982 for playing soccer and other ball sports, Radocy said.
The company is developing a prosthesis for rock climbers and is working with Aron Ralston, the man who amputated his arm in 2003 after he was pinned by a rock for six days in a remote Utah canyon.
Prostheses range in price according to their complexity, Radocy said, with standard devices starting at a “couple of hundred dollars” to high-performance gripping devices for $2,500.
Staff writer Kimberly S. Johnson can be reached at 303-820-1088 or kjohnson@denverpost.com.
