Walking more like God intended

Do you ever think much about how your knees and ankles work? About how they work so fluidly and effortlessly together so you can walk or run?

For that matter, have you ever thought about the remarkable way the two highly-specialized joints synchronize their movements, enabling you to travel over rough or rolling ground, or go up and down stairs?

Probably not. Unless you injure your knee or ankle, you don’t think about them at all. But JoAnne Kehler thinks about them every day – ever since the accident last summer that cost her a leg.

“There’s really nothing quite like what God gave us,” said Kehler, who uses an artificial limb to get around. “It’s very hard to mimic what the knee and ankle can do.”

Kehler, a former schoolteacher who lives just south of Winnipeg in the town of Landmark, was using a rototiller in her garden last July when the machine malfunctioned. “I tried to get out of the way, but I ended up getting entangled,” she said. Her left leg was damaged so badly it had to be amputated just above the knee.

It didn’t take long for the 38-year-old mother of three young, active children to get up and start walking again, using an artificial limb from Manitoba Health. She’s grateful for it, but the limb has its limitations. “With this leg, you can basically only go one speed,” she said, adding that going down a staircase is also difficult. “You have to do it one step at a time.”

But that’s not the worst of it. “I fall down a lot,” said Kehler, noting that it’s next to impossible to traverse uneven ground like her yard. “If I step on a decline, even if it’s just at a slight angle, I collapse. Even the wheelchair access on a city sidewalk can make me lose my balance and fall.”

JoAnne Kehler “test-drives” a C-leg at Lawson Prosthetic Services in Winnipeg. She will receive her own C-leg after a trial period with this leg.

The hardest part is being unable to go out and play with her children. “I can’t go do it,” she said, “unless I use a cane or crutches.”

There is a solution, and it’s called the C-leg, an artificial limb made by the German-based company Otto Bock. Widely seen as the most advanced artificial limb available today, the C-leg uses pressure sensors, angle detectors and strain gauges to figure out what users are doing and to flex and harden accordingly. People who use it can speed up, slow down and shift weight naturally as they walk down slopes, use stairs or cross uneven ground.

The main drawback is the cost – about $45,000. As a stay-at-home mom, Kehler doesn’t have private medical insurance, and her husband’s health insurance doesn’t cover spouses for loss of a limb. That’s where her church came in.

Although they live outside the city, Kehler, and her husband Ric, are long-time members of Winnipeg’s McIvor Ave. Mennonite Brethren Church. Jane Payment, a close friend and co-member, was overwhelmed when she heard about the accident. “I cried for days,” she said. “She’s got three young children and she wanted to keep up with them.”

When she heard about the C-leg, Payment decided to help. She organized a September fundraiser that attracted people from the church, the community and Landmark. Together, they raised more than $28,000 towards the cost of the new leg.

“I wasn’t surprised by the amount,” Payment said. “The church community is quite generous.”

McIvor Church pastor Doug Enns echoed her sentiments. “That kind of response is typical of this church. They really rally to help people in need.”

Payment and Enns may not have been surprised, but Kehler was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support. “It was just amazing,” she said. “God has been a very tangible support to me through the church.” She’s also quick to credit her husband Ric: “He has also been very close to me since the accident. Without him, I never would have made it this far.”

Throughout her recovery and rehabilitation, Kehler said, “God has carried me, in more ways than one.”

Her new leg arrives in February. After she gets it, she won’t need to lean on crutches or canes anymore. But she still expects to lean on God, and to walk more like God intended – gracefully, and without falling down.

John Longhurst is director of marketing and media relations for Mennonite Economic Development Associates of Winnipeg, and attends River East MB Church.