Today, I had the opportunity to share my experiences over the past year on 774 ABC Radio Melbourne (and Regional Victoria) with Kirsten Diprose. We discussed the evolution of prosthetic technology as part of a broader, hour-long conversation that also featured other guests. You can listen to the full broadcast [here].
And here’s a link to the original program page.
Here’s a transcript from the program which has been “tidied up” for spelling, brevity, clarity etc using Google Gemini (AI), and I haven’t really checked it, so there may be some errors.
Kirsten: On the ABC Listen app, your smart speaker and on AM radio. This is the Conversation Hour on ABC Radio Melbourne and Victoria. Let’s bring James O’Brien into the conversation. Peter Hawkins is still with us. But James, you’re actually from the ABC yourself, your radio planning manager based in Sydney. Welcome to the program.
James: Thank you.
Kirsten: Now, I suppose your story and experience is quite different from Peter because you’re, I suppose, someone who has recently only needed a prosthetic.
James: That’s right. Like Peter, I’m 58 years of age, but I’ve only had a prosthetic limb now on my right leg, the lower right leg for about 12 months. I was travelling overseas with some friends. I got a cut foot on a beach somewhere, came back. It all went terribly wrong. Some diabetes contributed to it as well. And I woke up out of a coma with part of my leg removed.
Kirsten: You’ve just skipped over that like, you know, it was going down to the shops and buying some milk.
James: Look, honestly, my niece was with me when I came out of the coma and she said, look, Jim, I’ve got something to tell you. It’s really upsetting, blah, blah, blah. And I was just pleased to be alive, to be honest. And early in the piece, I received a phone call from an organisation called Limbs for Life, which is actually based in Melbourne, which is a peer support organisation of people who are also amputees or using prosthetics. And look, that phone call from a guy called Clay made a huge difference to my attitude. He had a very similar circumstance to mine. And apparently, it is pretty common for lots of blokes of a certain age not to look after their health and to find themselves in this sort of position. So having that sort of peer support very early in the piece just made me feel good about it all.
Kirsten: That’s fantastic to hear that there’s such a proactive group that so obviously the hospital must connect you with Limbs for Life.
James: Yeah, the hospital that I was in connected me with Limbs for Life and they’re a national organisation. They’re all over the countryside, actually based in Melbourne, set up, I think, by a woman called Melissa Noonan initially. And, you know, it’s there’s a Facebook group and we share stories and anecdotes and there’s really nothing quite like to actually talk to someone else in a very similar position. There’s a woman I work with here at the ABC, Liz Wright. Liz is a Paralympic swimmer. And when I was in hospital, she reached out to me, medal-winning, I should emphasise too. She reached out to me, said, Hi, James, you know, I work at the ABC, blah, blah, blah. I’ve seen what you’ve gone through. And she was actually born with different length limbs, but she still wears prosthetics. And again, just having that sort of peer support or someone you could, you know, you could have these very short conversations and know exactly what’s going through. So, for example, I still get a bit tired and I said, I get tired. She goes, yeah, I get tired too. And it’s because we’re doing a lot more exercise and there’s more strain and those sort of things. And I’m not sure, Peter, if it’s still fatigue is an issue for you still after even though it’s almost 60 years for you.
Peter: Not really. But then I don’t remember what it was like before. So I’ve got very little to compare it to. But not really. I think it’s just, you know, just wait another 50 years and you’ll be fine.
Kirsten: So, James, what sort of prosthetic do you have?
James: Well, actually, I’ve still got my interim. It’s called the interim leg and the federal government funds each of the states to provide an interim leg. So in Victoria, the program is called the Victorian, the Victorian Artificial Limb Program. And basically, they receive some money from the federal government is administered through the hospitals. And what they do is they give you an initial one to start out with because your leg will shrink over the next couple of years. And like Peter mentioned, a plaster of Paris, you know, I was I had the fitting in the hospital where they, you know, got out the plaster and wrapped a creoe paper around it and all those sorts of things. So I’ve still got the initial interim leg. Last Wednesday, I had a fitting for my NDIS funded limb and it was a bit painful in the first couple of days, didn’t quite fit. So I went back to the company who looked after me and on Wednesday and they shaved a few things off it and made it fit better. And so what will happen now is we’ll see how it goes for a couple more weeks and then they’ll probably do the final fabrication of my new limb. And I’m also hopefully getting a wet leg as well, also funded by the NDIS. So I can go to the beach.
Kirsten: What does that mean? Does that mean like a swimming leg?
James: Not so much a swimming leg, but something I can wear in the shower or something I can go to the beach at and not worry about it rusting, basically.
Kirsten: What’s the NDIS one that you’re getting fitted with? What’s it made out of?
James: Look, I don’t really know, actually. I’m not really I’m listening to Peter talking all about the technology and I don’t really know.I think it’s carbon fibre, I think. And I think the wet leg has got some titanium there, which is rust resistant. Look, I’m not really great on the technology. All I know is it’s has made a huge difference to my life because, you know, for the first few months of last year after this happened, I was still getting around in a wheelchair and hopping around. And that was really hard and really tiring. So when I actually got the limb to wear, it made a huge difference. I still had to wear, like I said, go with the wheelchair for a while and crutches for a while. But now I can pretty much walk around without any additional support aside from the limb. The only thing I had to keep an eye out for is people kind of don’t notice it. And sometimes, you know, I’ve had people sort of push me out of the way. I did actually fall over once. There was a young person who sort of didn’t see that, you know, I still had some mobility issues and actually pushed me over accidentally and then felt mortified. And then also things like getting on trams. Some people just don’t even see it. So there’ll be people sitting in the disability seats. And I have to ask, you know, can you get up, please? Because I need to sit down.
Peter: And you’re right about the people being mortified. I went to something on the weekend and a young lady didn’t notice and accidentally shoved me from behind. And I stumbled. And then she realised and she felt awful. And you think, oh, but that’s not your fault.
James: No, absolutely. And you just want to make somebody realise, well, look, you were just unfortunate. You happened to pick the wrong person. You know, don’t feel so bad about it. We’re OK. So I do get cross with people who sit there looking at their mobile phones for the entire trip in the disability seats. And I think, just look up and see if someone else needs a seat more than you.
Kirsten: Yes, that is annoying. And I mean, it’s not just disabled people, those seats are reserved for, it’s people that, you know, eight months pregnant and that sort of thing. And it’s really selfish. It’s interesting, isn’t it? I mean, James, as someone who has only recently acquired a disability, have you changed the way that you see the world or are you more cognisant of things like this?
James: Absolutely. I mean, one of the interesting things is early in the piece, too, some friends didn’t know how to cope because there was quite a significant chance I might have had brain damage. And I did find that they were speaking to me a little more slowly. And I’ve even had colleagues at work speak to me in a much slower manner. And I go, it’s actually, it’s not my brain, it’s the leg. So that’s one of the things I’ve noticed. I’m much more aware of being on public transport in particular and the needs of other people. That has made a huge difference to me. And it was so interesting at the Disability Expo a couple of months ago and I volunteered at that sort of meeting and greeting people. And I am just so, I mean, I was always pretty aware of some of the issues of people with disability. But let me tell you, I’m much more aware of them now.
Kirsten : James O’Brien, thank you so much for joining us. I understand that you are blogging now about your experience. Yeah. Where can people find your blog? I
James : Just search for James O’Brien Amputee will probably find it. It’s a WordPress blog and I’ve been writing about my experiences all the way through. And I’ve tried to be as honest as possible.
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