Meet Fernando Barrientos Fernando Barrientes A diabetic since he was 33, his amputation, like Crowe’s, was an emergency situation. “It was probably one of the scariest things I have gone through.” “I thought, ‘No way is this happening to me.’ This happens to soldiers and people on TV.” It took nearly four months before he received his first artificial leg with a stationary foot. “After I got it, I took off running after I learned how to walk again,” he said with a broad smile. “It was really weird learning how to take your first steps all over again. Now it comes as second nature.” His second prosthesis, a tall microprocessor foot, is a state-ofthe-art limb. “Now I have pep in my step,” he laughed. This limb is computer programmed to adjust the foot to the incline. “Now it doesn’t seem like I am dragging my foot and doesn’t wear me out. It’s technically unbelievable.” His prosthetist Logan M. Newton with Achilles Prosthetics and Orthotics said Barrientes fell into the 30 percent of his patients who are “really upbeat.” “It greatly improved the way he can walk,” Newton said. “Fernando was really motivated and took off running.
I remember the first time he went up and down a ramp, he broke down he was so happy.” But getting there wasn’t easy. Anger and depression haunted him. One time, he said he threw his prosthesis across the room. Overwhelmed with caring for his aging stepfather, their house, and his own limitations, Barrientes said he never thought he would overcome the despondency that enveloped him after the amputation and that he felt like giving up. But his daughter, and members of the military, inspired him to become hopeful again. “My daughter wanted to drop out of college, and I explained what I had to change and I needed to be an example to her,” Barrientes said. “You see our soldiers coming back the same way, just seeing them overcome adversity, those are my heroes.” Today, he isn’t out of the woods medically. He receives kidney dialysis three times a week. He sticks to a strict diet, does a lot of walking, plans to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, and is involved in a local Amputee Support Group. “You are able to talk, joke, laugh about it and see the humor in it.” Every time Fernando Barrientes puts his prosthesis on, he reminds himself: “We can overcome anything as long as we try and put our heart into it. Every day brings a challenge.”
Unlike Crowe, 52-year-old Fernando Barrientes lost his right leg below the knee after battling diabetes. According to the American Academy of Orthotists and Prosthetists, more than 60 percent of non-traumatic lower limb amputations are the result of diabetes. Five years ago, a blister on the bottom of his right foot developed a staph infection. “It was either my leg or my life,” Barrientes recalled of his discussion with The Amputee doctors. Support Group meets the last Tuesday of the month at HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital, 5001 Commerce Drive, in Bakersfield. Contact Art Garcia at 323-5500 for more information.
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B Well Magazine
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Februar y 2013