Thursday, March 28, 2024

Academy Meeting Shocker…

Brian Weaver

Having attended my first Academy meeting this year in New Orleans, there
were some great people I met, good presentations, and overall an excellent
time was had.

Walking through the exhibit hall I was able to see many of the vendors that
I have not had the privilege to meet before. However something hit me as
odd as I walked by the Daw booth several times. I got a weird feeling that
something did not seem quite right. After talking to one of their
representatives there it finally hit me. He was not a TT amputee; he was
wearing a carbon shell with similar trim lines to that of a TT prosthesis,
with a sleeve pulled up over the edge onto his thigh so that it mimicked a
suction socket. I then noticed that every rep was wearing this same shell.
What gave it away was the 1/2″ gap on the proximal lateral trim line.

I had been told what I thought was a story by a fellow practitioner that
they do wear these carbon shins. I thought he was just pulling my leg and
had put it out of my mind. After returning home and talking to my
colleagues about the Daw booth, they all said that they had witnessed this
before. I was shocked at the disrespect they had for those who were
amputees at the meeting and lack of respect for what we do and the
masquerading as an amputee to try and sell product.

I have seen threads on the listserv and heard stories about Daw marketing
practices, which I thought initially, might just be a difference in the way
people do business or think it should be done. After witnessing what I had,
what conclusion can I come to other than Daw sales forces appear deceptive
which in turn most likely means that Daw itself is truly deceptive in their
dealings with the industry.

I would like to think that there are other practitioners in the field that
would find this type of behavior outrageous and underhanded. One would hope
that the Academy would insist that Daw stop trying to represent themselves
in that fashion and if they insist on doing it to please not attend next
years meeting.

Brian Weaver LP/CP

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