COVER STORY
Kolleen Conger, avid dirt biker, is a recipient of a Click Medical’s RevoFit adjustable prosthetic after a crash in 2008.
to comfort BY SHARON SULLIVAN
O
n a blue sky, powder snow day in 2009, certified prosthetist Joe Mahon was sitting on a ski lift with his wife when he received a phone call from a patient. She was preparing to leave on a trip and needed her prosthetic device adjusted. Mahon, who owns Peak Prosthetic Designs in Salt Lake City, Utah, had noticed that patients were often frustrated by an inability to easily adjust their own artificial limbs.
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COLOR ADO COUNTRY LIFE FEBRUARY 2019
As Mahon waited for his wife to step off the ski lift he noticed that she tightened her snowboard boots via a small dial added to the boots for that purpose. Then, as she snowboarded away, she stooped to tighten her boots again. At that moment, Mahon says he experienced a “lightbulb moment” when he realized that a similar dial could be used for prosthetics that would allow patients to make their own adjustments — without the hassle of removing their clothing and prosthetic devices, or having to make a trip to a clinic for an adjustment.