help with leg (or lack of)

[thom1995]

I am wondering if anyone has a link to adaptive equipment for a BKA. I would like to dive with my prosthesis on to help with balance, I dont have the leverage for fins on it. I need a cover but wonder if it would cause problems (squeeze).

Anyone with experience in this area would be a great help.

 

[cerich]

I am wondering if anyone has a link to adaptive equipment for a BKA. I would like to dive with my prosthesis on to help with balance, I dont have the leverage for fins on it. I need a cover but wonder if it would cause problems (squeeze).

Anyone with experience in this area would be a great help.

Give these folks a http://www.hsascuba.com/call, the will KNOW the answer

 

[thomjinx]

Hey Thom,

I have a great dive buddy in the Philippines who is an above-the-knee amputee. She just dives Mermaid-style without her prosthesis and uses an ankle weight or other trim weights to balance out. She has a custom wetsuit that tapers down to one ankle, and this is very streamlined for her.

You should see the looks she gets when divers from another boat see her in the water! They think they are narced, seeing a Mermaid with scuba gear!

 

[Bratface]

I also know a one-legged diver. He, too, is an AKA and doesn't use a prosthesis at all. He sits down, gets his BC on and over he goes. He looks very graceful in the water and has no trouble at all. He takes the BC off and hands it up before he hops up the ladder. Good luck.

Whoops, I see by the date that the original post was in October. I hope Thom has found a way to go diving.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I have a friend who has nothing below the knee on one leg. I talked him into just sticking a scuba pro jet fin on the stump one day. To both of our surprise, it stayed on very well. However, he ended up with a really bad stump hickey. seems that the stump has adapter to taking weight pretty well, but the squeeze at depth really put a hurting on him, it swelled up, filled wth fluid and blood, turned colors and he couldn't use the prosthesis for a week.

I wonder if the simplest choice is to just use a single large and powerful freedive fin on the good foot and use a dolphin kick?

 

[do it easy]

What do you mean by cover? Is this some sort of waterproof seal on your stump? Could you flood it with sailine and eliminate the air space?

A few thoughts- I knew one kid that dove with his prothesis- he had an old, backup one and we just stuck an ankle weight on it to make it neutral. He swam with his arms.

A while back, I did see a diver with a prothesis that had a fin mounted on it. He walked up to the water, switched from his walking prothesis to his swimming one, just like someone would put on their fins, and then he was on his way.

Yeah, I know the thread is a few months old, but it doesn't hurt to have the info out there, in case somone actually uses the mythical search function.

 

[knotical]

My single experience was a student with an AKA. She brought her swim prosthesis, but since we were uncertain of its compressibility, she dove without. After a bit of practice, she did fine with a single fin, better than some with two.

 

[Bratface]

The guy I know does the dolphin kick with one fin. Works well. I think it would be better to try to dive without the bulk of a prosthetic. Sometimes they behave like they want to.

My former husband is a BKA. (Lost it to a drunk one night coming home on our Harley) When he got his prosthesis and started riding again, I looked down and saw that his "leg" was being blown off the foot peg. I kicked it back on. We got a good laugh out of that, and he learned that he had to manage riding a little differently.

 

[JAMIE MCG]

Well since, do it easy mentioned that others might have questions related to this, I am a below the knee (BK) amputee, and what I have done is took one of my old sockets no foot attached and it fits perfectly into a spit fin Jet fin. Earlier in my diving I would use the old wool sock and a suspension sleeve without the socket, it worked but would loosen up just a little, I even attached the fin with a bolt to an older leg, but that made packing for a trip a PITA. If anyone ever needs help just send a PM

 

[Aquaphile]

I am a cold water diver. I first started diving before I had an appropriate prosthesis. I just dove with a regular fin on my one leg. I tied off the wetsuit below the end of my stump to prevent cold water from entering the area (LOL!). I did just fine and never noticed any "balance" problems nor did I need to swim with my hands. However, Southern California beach diving is very difficult on one leg.

Now I dive with a waterproof leg (well, I replace the metal parts every so often). I use a "Rampro" ankle that allows me to lock the foot in a pointed position. My stump is very short (I am a BKA) and I cannot power a full-sized dive fin. So I use a cheapo snorkelling fin on the prosthesis. Most two-legged divers have difficulty keeping up with me.

As for sleeves, I use a neoprene sleeve in addition to my regular suspension system (a 3-s system with a silicone Iceross sleeve). I've never had any problems with compression, even with my 7-mm wetsuit.

Any questions or if you're in SoCal and want to go diving, just PM me.

Cheers!

-Karen