Great story!

[Sapphire 0]

HOUSTON -- A Houston veteran who has been in a wheelchair since 1983, took his first steps in 27 years Tuesday night.

"No easy steps. Only hard steps," Harry Shaw said of his life after the Grenada invasion. It is a conflict most have forgotten, but it changed Shaw's life forever.

“I was the most serious out of all of the injured in Grenada," Shaw said.

He lost both legs. Shaw accepted his fate of life in a wheelchair with courage and grace.

"I'm a paratrooper. That's just the way I am. The world is a drop zone and that is all I see," Shaw said as he wheeled into the Amputee and Prosthetic Center on FM 1960 Tuesday.

His life was about to take another dramatic turn.

Ben Falls, chief prosthestician at APC, and his team had built new legs for Shaw. For them, it became a labor of love.

“It is important to me that we do this right," Falls said.

After Shaw was fitted, he was ready to take the new legs for a test drive.

'It is a lot like jumping out of a plane. You just have to have the courage and the faith. Paratroopers know a lot about faith," said Shaw.

Shaw's wife, Ginny, held her breath as she watched him stand up from the wheelchair and take a few steps.

"I've never seen him upright, never seen him standing. Very strange to see him my height," Ginny said.

Shaw’s daughter, Chloe, was looking toward the future.

"The first thing that crossed my mind is that he would be able to walk me down the aisle one day," Chloe said.

Some work is just about pay. There's more when your job is providing hope.

"The payoff for me is what we did for that man. You know," said Falls. Motivation comes from all sorts of places. Falls has only to look down at his own prosthetic limb.

"This is basically what Mr. Shaw has. It is a microprocessor-controlled knee," Falls said.

"It is hard to grasp it. It is even hard to fully comprehend it now," Shaw said. But he too was already looking ahead to a future full of promise.

"Ginny wants her first dance. I've never given her that," Shaw said. "I'm good at hard steps. I'm good at challenges.”

In fact, Shaw only made the decision to get the $100,000 legs after he was told he could not jump at an amputee skydiving event.
His stumps were too short.

“My biggest motivator is when somebody tells me it can't be done," Shaw said.

"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar" ~ Helen Keller

[skyrider 0]

Hope to see him in the sky soon, and jumping with Peices of Eight!

[skyrider 0]

Here is the event he had to skip, bet he is there next year!
http://www.airborneamputee.com/

[JohnRich 4]

Quote

...he was told he could not jump at an amputee skydiving event.
His stumps were too short.

I'm guessing there's too big a chance he could slip out of a harness.
Will artificial legs remedy that situation - i.e., could the artificial legs slip off and create the same danger?

My real question is why they hell did it take 27 years for this wounded vet to get some artificial legs?

[skyrider 0]

Quote

Quote

...he was told he could not jump at an amputee skydiving event.
His stumps were too short.

I'm guessing there's too big a chance he could slip out of a harness.
Will artificial legs remedy that situation - i.e., could the artificial legs slip off and create the same danger?

My real question is why they hell did it take 27 years for this wounded vet to get some artificial legs?

He has stumps,,,even though he is a big guy, they shoudl have been able to handle him...Harnesses can be modified, I am betting they just didn't have th etalent on hand, that could handle a big legless guy!

As for what took so long? NO SHIT....He gives thta much to our country, the least we can do is EVERYTHING....Instead the money is wasted on welfare leaches! i gotta shut up now, or this will get moved!

[wmw999 2,589]

If the stumps are short enough, it would take a custom-made harness. Which would need drop-testing and the like.

Taking a look at a picture of him, his stumps are really quite short. They might have tried a harness on him, and discovered that his mobility is good enough that he could lift a stump and just leave too little holding him in. It's unreasonable to think that any DZ would be able to take every single person.

I know the DZ; I jump there. They'll go a long way to help someone in special circumstances make a jump. But if they don't think they can do it safely, they won't do it. There was at least one other double AK amputee who jumped -- this was based on individual evaluation.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[skyrider 0]

Quote

If the stumps are short enough, it would take a custom-made harness. Which would need drop-testing and the like.

Taking a look at a picture of him, his stumps are really quite short. They might have tried a harness on him, and discovered that his mobility is good enough that he could lift a stump and just leave too little holding him in. It's unreasonable to think that any DZ would be able to take every single person.

I know the DZ; I jump there. They'll go a long way to help someone in special circumstances make a jump. But if they don't think they can do it safely, they won't do it. There was at least one other double AK amputee who jumped -- this was based on individual evaluation.

Wendy P.

My bet is it was a matter of "can't be done today" not a matter of "can't be done" special rigging takes time to be safe!