Earl Fogler:The End of Innocence

In many ways, the year 1959 presaged the end of an age of innocence. It was the year several U.S. servicemen were killed in a guerilla attack, signaling the first deaths of the Vietnam War; G.D. Searle sought governmental approval for the birth control pill; Grove Press won permission to publish D.H. Lawrence's novel Lady Chatterly's Lover ; and Jack Kilby invented the revolutionizing microchip. The year also marked the end of innocence for Earl Fogler, CP. On September 15, 1959, at the tender age of seven, Fogler was severely injured in a schoolyard bombing at Edgar Allen Poe Elementary School in Houston, Texas. He lost part of his right leg, starting just below the knee. The blast left 18 others injured and six dead-including the bomber and his son. Fogler gives what he calls the Reader's Digest version of that day's events: "I was in second grade here in Houston," he begins. "We were out at morning recess and...a gentleman came up to the playground [with] his son.... He had a suitcase [filled] with dynamite...with a detonator on the bottom of it, [and] at some point during his conversations with the principal and some other teachers, he set the suitcase down and the dynamite went off." It was one of the earliest acts of school-ground violence in U.S. history. According to a September 28, 1959, article in Time magazine, the bomber, Paul Orgeron, was "an ex-convict" and "sometime tile layer" who was "obsessed by dark fantasies of power and gods." Disgruntled about a conversation with the principal that resulted in a failed attempt to enroll his son, Dusty, into the second grade, Orgeron, with Dusty at his side, detonated a dynamite-filled suitcase on the playground during the second-grade recess. Fogler was transported to Hermann Hospital-the only trauma center in Houston at the time. Fortunately for him, a Korean War field surgeon who was familiar with this type of trauma had just finished surgery on another patient and agreed to operate on him. Back to Normal Fogler remained hospitalized for two weeks and returned to school in mid-October. At seven years old, Earl Fogler returned to school on crutches. Photographs courtesy of Earl Fogler. "I have a picture of my first day back [at school], using crutches," he says, "and I was fitted with my first prosthesis around December 23." Al Muilenburg, CP, fit Fogler with his first prosthesis. Muilenburg was the owner and founder of Muilenburg Artificial Limb Company, Houston, Texas-renamed Muilenburg Prosthetics Inc. (MPI), in 1970. Fogler was one of the first patients whom Muilenburg fit using the newly developed patella tendon-bearing (PTB) strap, at a time when the standard was a joint-and-corset prosthesis. "They did not have physical therapy back then," Fogler says. "It was really more, 'Here's your prosthesis...now go try it.'" Regardless of the "fit-and-go" method employed at that time, Fogler does not recall having to overcome any extraordinary challenges due to wearing a prosthesis. Fogler learned this "can-do" attitude from his parents, whom he describes as very positive. The cultural attitude at the time was that people who lived through disasters should get back to normal as quickly as possible; there was no extended school closure, no trauma counseling, and no lawsuits. "There wasn't anything about it that really limited me," Fogler asserts. "Not that I can remember. I rode a bike, did skateboard-not very well, [but] I could. I basically did everything I wanted to do...." Finding Direction Earl Fogler takes a break from his busy schedule at MPI. Fascinated with the tools of the trade and the smell of leather that surrounded him whenever he visited with the leather-room technician during his appointments at Muilenburg, Fogler decided to enter the O&P profession. And though he says he was not overly focused in high school, once he made the decision to enter O&P, Fogler forged ahead with his education. For his first two years of college, he took general courses at Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas. From there, Fogler found an O&P technician program at a junior college in New Orleans, Louisiana. "So I called them and got in down there," Fogler recalls. "I did that for a year. When I graduated from there, Mr. Muilenburg called and offered me a job as a tech, which I started doing...in June 1974. Back then, they offered [O&P] short-term courses-UCLA and Northwestern University offered them-so in 1975, I went and took all the short-term courses I needed to sit for my ABC boards...in 1978." When Fogler started working at MPI, he did a lot of arm repairs and "just sort of enjoyed" doing that part of it, he says. He stuck with it, and 36 years later, Fogler is the senior practitioner at MPI-probably just because he's been there the longest, he jokes-specializing in body-powered and myoelectric upper-limb prostheses. Partnering for Life The MPI website talks about "partnering for life" with its patients. This concept of partnership and the value of relationships is something Fogler knows a lot about. Cases in point include his combined 51-year relationship with MPI as a patient and practitioner, his 35-year marriage to his wife, Anne, who also attended Poe Elementary, and the relationships he's built with his "kids"-patients whom he started seeing when they were young and has watched grow up, much how Muilenburg followed him. "I always thought that was a cool thing, to see them go through the whole thing [prosthetic care] as a real small child and hear [about] them going off to college and getting married," he says. Age of Experience Fogler has seen a lot in his years at MPI. Though still located at the same street address at which Fogler was first fit with a prosthesis, MPI's original building was torn down, and a new, larger, more modern facility was built in its place. Al Muilenburg passed away in 2005, and his son, Ted, now runs the business. The "fit-and-go" method of prosthesis delivery has evolved to include gait training, detailed instruction on the use and care of the device, rehabilitation, and improved bedside manners. The microchip that was introduced to the world in 1959 has offered an abundance of technological advances in both how MPI's office is run and the types of prostheses available. Fogler enthuses about changes in foot componentry, microprocessor knees, and the use of carbon fiber materials. He thinks the biggest changes in O&P have come by way of computer-aided prostheses, such as knees, elbows, and hands. However, as "miraculous" as some of these technological prosthetic advances may seem, Fogler speaks from experience as both a patient and practitioner when he cautions that "it still doesn't replace the 'original' equipment" although he and his team members try their best to "get as close as we can." Fogler also emphasizes that while his injury has changed his life and helped him to find a lifelong career and passion, it does not define his life. In fact, he says that he has "quite a few patients" who don't notice he is an amputee unless he offers the information. "I don't feel like I can be defined by my amputation...," Fogler says. "I try to stress that to a lot of my patients.... There are other factors. [If] I'm not having a good life, it's not because I'm missing a limb." Laura Hochnadel can be reached at linkEmail('laura','opedge.com');

Earl Fogler:The End of Innocence

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