<img style="float: right;" src="https://opedge.com/Content/OldArticles/images/2007-01_11/11-1.jpg" hspace="4" vspace="4" /> <b><i>One family's tragedy became another's miracle when Michael and Dawn Kimberly generously donated their bereaved son's computerized leg (C-Leg) prosthesis to then 18-year-old Sara Ashcroft.</i></b> When the Kimberlys' youngest son, Brad Aaron Kimberly, lost his battle with osteogenic sarcoma in February 2005 at the age of 27, they found themselves in the position to give a great gift. This C-Leg® was immediately put to good use, and donating it was a way for the Kimberlys to honor their son's memory. Brad's family and friends remember him as someone who loved being around others. Growing up in Ithaca, New York, a small town of 25,000, Brad enjoyed boating on the lake behind his parent's home. His year-and-a-half fight with cancer included the amputation of his leg, lung surgery, and chemotherapy. After struggling with his insurance company to obtain the high-tech, high-cost Otto Bock C-Leg, Brad finally obtained the leg only several months before his death. "He didn't get to use the leg for very long, but while he did, it improved his self-confidence, and his quality of life was much better," says his mother. She adds, "He called it his Mercedes.'" For Brad's mother, the decision to donate her son's leg was an easy one. "It was good for us to cope with our grief by looking past ourselves to the needs of others. [The C-Leg] was doing us absolutely no good just sitting here," she says. "It's an expensive piece of equipment, and to me it was a 'no-brainer'; we had to find someone who could really use it." The Kimberlys gave the C-Leg to the Barr Foundation, Boca Raton, Florida, an organization that provides prosthetic care and components through donations and sponsoring prosthetists to those who can't afford to pay. According to Foundation President Tony Barr, the organization has received three C-Legs to date and has helped more than 1,200 amputees by providing other new and used components. When Sara Ashcroft's prosthetist, Bobby Leaber, CPO, Adaptive P&O, Houma, Louisiana, contacted the Barr Foundation to solicit a new leg for the Hurricane Katrina survivor, Barr was amazed at the timing. "[Leaber] asked us if we had a C-Leg that would greatly benefit one of his patients, and within a week we received an unsolicited offer from the Kimberlys to donate their son's C-Leg!" Barr says. "It was meant to be, and there are no coincidences in life!" Leaber explains that Ashcroft, whom he has worked with since 1999, was born without a leg. When she outgrew her current prosthesis and Medicaid wouldn't cover a C-Leg, Leaber contacted Barr. Because Ashcroft is shorter than the Kimberly's son had been, a new pylon was needed. "Tony contacted Otto Bock to get a new pylon," Leaber says. "The foot and socket were covered by Medicaid." Leaber adds that Ashcroft "has been more active and has lost a considerable amount of weight, so we're currently remaking her socket to fit her better." Ashcroft agrees that her weight loss is a result of greater activity, made possible by the C-Leg. "I just had a regular leg before; this leg is much different," she says. "[The leg] knows when I go down or up a hill. It makes it a lot easier to go up, and it stays straight when I go down so I don't fall. I couldn't ride a bike or walk like a normal person before." Since obtaining her new leg, Ashcroft, who is now 20 years old and lives with her boyfriend in Vancleave, Mississippi, graduated from East Central High School in Moss Point, Mississippi, in May 2006. She started working in a day care center, a job that requires constant walking and bending to pick up children. In addition to enabling Ashcroft to do her job, the C-Leg has given her greater confidence. "It was difficult to get used to the C-Leg at first. [Leaber] had to teach me how to walk without swinging out my leg and how to walk down steps," she explains. "I cried because I didn't know how to do it. They said it would be okay, and it was. I look more normal now." Ashcroft mailed the Kimberly family a kind note that included her graduation announcement and pictures with her family. She says she appreciates their gift every day. "They're so nice for giving me that leg," she says through tears. After a long pause, she continues, "It gets me every time. Every time I look at my leg, I'm amazed at what they did for me." Experiencing the kindness of strangers struggling with their own grief has changed Ashcroft's life. She says, "Life is what God gives you. It might be hard, but you get through it. I'm a tough cookie!" <i>Sherry Metzger, MS, is a freelance writer with degrees in anatomy and neurobiology. She is based in Westminster, Colorado, and can be reached at </i><a href="mailto:sherry@opedge.com"><i>sherry@opedge.com</i></a>
