The American Orthotic and Prosthetic Association

O&P Almanac
The Magazine of the Orthotic & Prosthetic Industry

May 2003

"When Hollywood Calls:
 Amputees Move into the Spotlight"

               CBS's "JAG" - Patrick Labyorteaux & Karri Turner

Positive roles
After Pike left Otto Bock in 1996, when the company went through consolidation. Directors, producers and authors became aware of him through his Web site, which lists the productions on which he’s consulted.

One such e-mail he received from a visitor to his Web site was from a man involved in a theatrical production on the life of Sarah Bernhardt, a French actress who lost her leg in 1915 at the age of 71. Pike educated him on what prostheses from that time period looked like, helping to make the device used in the production more realistic to that era. “I think that [prosthetic consultants] provide more accuracy as far as what a prosthesis really is like, as opposed to somebody’s imagination of how a prosthesis should look such as in the recent movie Duce Bigalow: Male Gigolo,” Pike explained.

Most recently, he served as creative consultant of an independent film called “Four Feet.” Set in a hospital room, the movie follows a young woman’s journey in coping with a recent amputation. As an expert consultant, Pike was on the set during filming and advised the director and actors on realistic procedures and techniques to use. He also educated them about amputation and being an amputee.

Pike is pleased with the accuracy and positive message of the film. But, he feels that there need to be more movies like it, which portray amputees and the prosthetic profession in a positive light. (See page 34 for a list of movies in which amputees are portrayed positively that Pike recommends watching.)

All too often, amputees are depicted negatively, says Pike. “The amputee is always portrayed as an evil person: Captain Hook, Peg Leg Pete,” he observed. “All these are portraying a negative role model of the amputees. These are not positive characters. These are villainous characters. We need to show the amputee as not being villainous.”

Another mistake filmmakers make all too often, he says, is depicting amputee characters that walk with poor gaits. “The amputees you see in movies always have a very poor gait, and this is not the case [in real life],” Pike observed. “Many amputees walk without a noticeable limp because of the skill of an experienced prosthetist.”

One show on television today that Pike believes portrays amputees realistically is the CBS drama “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”. This is because the show’s amputee character, the corner, is portrayed by a real life amputee, actor Robert David Hall.

Al Pike, CP

Pike would like to see amputees portrayed in more “everyday-life situations,” such as this one. On “CSI,” the coroner just happens to be an amputee, but being an amputee is not intergral to the character. And, Hall’s character walks with a slightly stiff gait and uses an arm crutch, which is realistic, since that is how Hall, a bilateral amputee really walks. “The better job we do as prosthetists, the more disguised the amputee is going to be [in television and on the big screen],” Pike explained

For his next consulting project, Pike will serve as a consultant on an IMAX film about limb loss. 

Amputee advocate
Not only does Pike work to ensure that amputees are portrayed realistically in the entertainment industry, but he is also an advocate for amputees in other ways. In 1999, he founded the Amputee Resource Foundation of America Inc. (ARFA), a nonprofit organization devoted to disseminating timely and useful information, performing charitable services and conducting research to enhance productivity and quality of life for amputees in the United States.

Because Pike feels that the Internet is an extremely powerful educating tool, ARFA is a Web-based organization. “I felt [the Internet] was a way of educating the public, the medical community and amputees about prosthetics and the rehabilitation process,” he explained. “The more a person knows about rehabilitation - starting with the physician doing the amputation surgery, the amputee and their family - the better the outcomes are going to be.

“If you go into a situation where the surgeon understands the basics of amputee rehabilitation and prosthetics,” Pike added, “he or she can then construct an amputated limb so that it’s beneficial for a prosthesis vs. just simply cutting off a leg to save a life.”

Pike was the first recipient of the Amputee Coalition of America’s Professional Achievement Award. Presented to him in 1998, the award honored him for being a professional who has made a significant and positive impact on the lives of amputees.

Pike credits his prosthetic education at Northwestern University in the 1960s as the reason he became such a strong consumer advocate. “The school at the time was very medical oriented,” Pike explained. “The focus was on prosthetists being professionals, and professionals are concerned about their patients, whereas salesmen are not.”

In addition to receiving the ACA honor, Pike is also a former president of the Academy. 

Pilot turned prosthetist
If it weren’t for poor eyesight, Pike may have ended up as a pilot today instead of a prosthetist.

A military brat, Pike planned on a military career. He joined the U.S. Air Force and a few months later received a nomination to the Air Force Academy. But, he couldn’t get into pilot training because of stringent eyesight requirements.

Instead, he did his tour of duty in the medical service. And that’s what drew him to the field of prosthetics.

A veteran himself, Pike now serves as a prosthetist-orthotist at the Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center in Minneapolis. “Here at the VA, you take a guy who’s in his 60s, 70s or 80s and get him up and walking for the second time in his life when he thought he couldn’t do it,” Pike observed. “It puts goose bumps on your arms.”

Pike (second from left, front row) takes time out from directing an air show to pose in front of a B-17 with other crew members.

Passion for flying
Although Pike enjoys being a prosthetist and finds it very rewarding, he is still smitten with aviation. A member of the Air Force Association, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (which is also ironically, know as AOPA) and the Minnesota American Legion Aviation Post, Pike has never forgotten his first love.

For over 15 years he was involved with Planes of Fame East, an air museum in Eden Prairie, Minn. containing a flying collection of WWII combat aircraft. He served on the museum’s executive committee, as a training officer and for three years as director of its air shows.

Through his work with the museum, Pike has flown some extraordinary aircraft: B-25s, B-17s, T-6s and T-34s. “I was able to get my hands on the controls of those airplanes and meet some of the aviation greats, like Chuck Yeager, Tony LaVier, Gabby Gabreski, Joe Foss,” Pike recalled fondly.

Pike perches on the wing of a T-34 just one of the many aircraft he has flown.

“It’s because of Bob Pond (owner of the museum) that I got to really expand upon and enjoy the flying part of my life that I didn’t get to enjoy in the Air Force,” he added.

Although Pond closed the Planes of Fame East museum in the late 1990s when he moved West, he has since opened a new one in Palm Springs, California.

Although he’s passionate about flying, Pike has that same zeal for the profession he’s practiced for 38 years. “I’ve always thought I had the best of two worlds: my flying role and my prosthetics role,” he observed.

“The people that I’ve met, the experiences I’ve had - it’s been very rewarding,” he continued.  People go through life and either they’re successes or they’re not. And I think I’ve been a very successful person.” “I may not be a rich man financially, but I’m a very wealthy man in other ways.”
 

Movies Worth Watching: Pike’s Picks

Next time you’re at the video store and can’t find a new release to rent, Pike recommends checking out some of these titles: 

1. “The Best Years of Our Lives” (1946). One of the most memorable films about the aftermath of World War II, this movie unfolds with the homecoming of three veterans to the same small town. The movie never glosses over the reality of altered lives and the inability to communicate the experience of war on the front lines or the home front. World War II vet Harold Russell, who lost his hands in the war, won two Oscars for his role in the movie: Best Supporting Actor and a special Oscar “for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance.”
    
2.  “Crossbar” (1979). This is a moving story about an Olympic high jumper who loses his leg in a farm accident and, nonetheless, makes pole-vaulting history in the Olympics.
    
3. “Reach for the Sky” (1956). This is a true story about British aviator Douglas Bader who, after losing both his legs in a plane crash, rejoins the Royal Air Force and becomes a war hero. Bader’s is a story of determination, courage and refusal to accept what others define as the limits of the possible.
    
4. “The Stratton Story” (1949). This film presents the real-life story of courageous sports hero Monty Stratton. Jimmy Stewart presents a career-defining performance as the young Chicago White Sox pitcher who loses a leg in a hunting accident. Depressed, Stratton at first refuses to walk with his prosthesis, but under the encouragement of his wife he relearns to walk just as his young son takes his own first steps. With courage and determination, Stratton builds his strength and returns to the sport at which he excelled, becoming a minor league star.

Movie synopses are courtesy of http://movies.yahoo.com and www. hollywood.com.