The graduate students and faculty of the California State University Dominguez Hills (CSUDH O&P program are heavily involved in adaptive sports, so the Paralympic Games have been at the forefront of our days. On August 30, CSUDH O&P had the privilege of an inside look at the Ottobock Repair Service Center at the Tokyo Paralympics.
Thanks to Tim Shride, CPO, we were able to see what a day working in the service center looked like. During our half-hour live Zoom call with Tim, he walked us around the facility where we interviewed technical teams from Portugal, Germany, Spain, and Japan. The teams were busy with wheelchair repairs, equipment repairs, and fabricating complete prosthetic replacements.
The tour was impressive. Ottobock has manned service centers at the Paralympic Games since 1988 and now has a technical service team of 106 members that can speak 22 languages. Ottobock donates 18 metric tons of equipment/machinery, including 17,300 spare parts, to the Games. It is expected that the team will perform over 2,000 repairs by the end of the Paralympics.
The CSUDH O&P students have been busy this summer by participating in various activities and services. The students teamed up with Amp’d On Life, a nonprofit support group based in Orange County, California; Rancho Los Amigos Rehabilitation Hospital; and Angel City Sports to work with the community on how to learn to play crutch soccer, wheelchair basketball, and to do adaptive yoga. Two of our students volunteered their time to go to Ecuador with the Range of Motion Project to provide prosthetic devices to 15 individuals. We’re excited to help with the 2028 Paralympics in Los Angeles and can’t wait to do more!
CSUDH O&P students and faculty having an inside look at the Ottobock Repair Service Center at the Tokyo Paralympics thanks to Tim Shride, CPO.
Photographs courtesy of CSUDH.
