God Hates Amputees

Limbs for Life offers hope to boy born without leg

“It was such a shock, kind of surreal,” Colleen Karow recalled. “It was just unbelievable.”

The couple, who had come to California from South Africa , had just received news from their doctor about her ultrasound procedure. The child she was carrying, the couple’s first, would be born without a right leg, possibly the result of a blood clot.

“It was scary to think, ‘What would his life be without a leg?’” Colleen Karow remembered. “We had no idea about the world of prosthetics.”

When the Karows investigated what would be involved in keeping their child equipped with an above-the-knee artificial limb, they had another shock: “It’s outrageously expensive,” Colleen Karow said.

Each limb could cost $10,000 or more. And with a growing, active child, replacements would be needed every year or so, not to mention adjustments, repairs and replacement of parts, like the synthetic foot the boy would wear down by just crawling around.

The couple had insurance that could pay most, but not all, of prosthetics expenses for their son, Connor. However, persuading the insurer to cover repeated prosthetic purchases — even the less-expensive “pylon” legs he wore at first — would become a constant battle, Colleen Karow said. “Every year it’s a fight.”

‘You’re not alone’ Then their prosthetics company told them about Limbs For Life Foundation. The organization was started in 1995 Oklahoma City by prosthetics pioneer Scott Sabolich and Craig Gavras . Gavras had his right leg amputated after a running injury during police academy training in Dallas exacerbated a previous injury suffered in intramural sports at the University of Oklahoma .

“Thank God, Limbs for Life came in,” Colleen Karow said.

The organization agreed to accept Connor as one of the 700 amputees it helps each year. That meant the Karows would not have to worry that Connor might end up without a prosthetic leg, on crutches or in a wheelchair, she said. “Just having that relief of knowing there’s hope and you’re not alone.”

After Connor tried on a “running leg,” Colleen Karow said, he never looked back. The lightweight leg, which features a flexible C-shaped metal foot, provides spring that aids running. Although Connor still couldn’t outrun most of his able-bodied friends, he could keep up with them, his mother said.

Does God Hate Amputees? - Brainstorm - The Chronicle of Higher ...

Early last week, amid the flurry of news about tornadoes, President Obama’s birth certificate, and the killing of Bin Laden, former Pope John Paul II was beatified, a major step on his way to sainthood. The Vatican’s preoccupations and machinations in this regard are literally none of my business, although I’m inclined to applaud the whole rigmarole as an inoffensive act of organizational onanism, the sort of in-group self-pleasuring that provides innocuous outlet for energy and which, albeit unproductive, is at least un-harmful to the rest of us. If masturbation is the epitome of safe sex, beatification—and presumably canonization as well—represents its theological equivalent: Good clean fun. No blood, no foul. (Although I note that according to the Times, , several doctors were consulted, whereupon “their testimony was then notarized, and the committee certified the miracle.”