East Coast Orthotic & Prosthetic Corp. was featured on WIVB in Buffalo, in a story about the company’s work with Shannon Smith. Shannon has been working with our Corporate Clinical Director, Christopher Berger, on her rehabilitation.
Below is the story from WIVB:
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – A Buffalo woman has a new lease on life thanks to a little high-tech help. Friday night, she shared her story on Inside Edition.
The young Buffalo mother was busy taking care of her first child and expecting her second when something went horribly wrong.
Shannon Smith said, “I was told I had to have an emergency “C” section, and from there everything just spiraled out of control. I started developing blood clots and pneumonia, kidney failure and liver failure. I was in a coma for three weeks.”
When she awoke from that coma the nightmare wasn’t over. She lost the baby she was carrying and a serious bacterial infection forced doctors to amputate all of her limbs in an effort to save her life.
“They just did my left side first then about a week later they did the right side,” Smith recalled.
She admits she had a lot of doubt, until she remembered one little thing.
“I was just thinking of all the things I couldn’t do,” she said. “Then it just changed into the things that could happen. At least I was still alive.”
Smith asserted, “I’m only 29. I have a 3-year-old now and I have to go on living for him.”
So with an unbeatable spirit, a ready smile, and the latest in high-tech prosthetics, she began living her new life. Experts say these complex tools link together three basic tasks: a thought process, a muscular contraction and a response from her hand. Our brains do it all the time, but doctors say they’ve never done anything quite like this.
Chris Berger, Director of East Coast Orthotics and Prosthetics said, “Fitting a patient with four prosthetic limbs to this level hasn’t been done before.”
Smith wasn’t even alive when the 1970s show was on the air, but she smiles when she hears her doctors say she is a true “Bionic Woman.”
“That’s a cool name…,” Smith smiled. “‘Bionic Woman…'”
If you would like to help Shannon Smith by making a donation to her medical fund, you can do so here, where you can also learn more about her remarkable story.
Source: WIVB.com
To learn more about Shannon Smith’s story and to donate to her medical fund, please visit her website here.