Perhaps it is never really a surprise when someone who has been through a trauma recovers with the intent of using the pain to fuel a bigger life purpose. The parents who lose a child in a swimming accident become advocates of summer safety measures for children. The addict who feels his life is saved by a recovery program becomes a drug counselor. The teenager who has major heart surgery makes med school plans as she rehabilitates.
There is something lovely and spiritual about those stories of people who transition their trauma into advocacy, who draw out their determination to heal themselves to serving others as well. As a writer, I spent a year profiling people who were getting to the other side of serious illnesses and devastating injuries. In interview after interview, I heard people of all ages explain what they referred to as their mission, God's plan, inspiration or revelation that needed to help other people make it through similar pain. Whatever words they used, the intent was the same.
This intent is apparent in Van Phillips, a 54-year old runner, inventor and amputee who has taken his own pain and (literally) run with it.
Phillips, who lost his leg in a water skiing accident when he was in college, says he felt imprisoned by the standard-issue wood and rubber prosthetic leg he was immediately fitted with in the hospital. Once he was released, his self- reported obsession with inventing a more advanced prosthetic leg took off. His own determination propelled him to medical school at Northwestern University's Prosthetic-Orthotic Center, where he cast off criticism and discouragement of his designs. Many years, models and hours spent in his basement lab later, Phillips created a C-shaped prosthetic leg intended for elite athletes. The Cheetah, as it is called, wasn't designed to mimic bones and was inspired by the elastic, expansive-retracting nature of a cheetah's legs.
Phillips eventually sold his designs and continues to break the boundaries of prosthetics. A runner himself, Phillips is actively watching a South African sprinter attempt to qualify for the Olympics. Many other athletes -- including the first female amputee to complete the Ironman -- have crossed finish lines wearing the flexible, fast and innovative legs he dreamed up after his own accident.
Clearly, no matter where our own paths take us, not all of us are meant to or need to change a sport or reconstruct lives and athleticism of so many people. But maybe stories like Van Phillips' speak to the ways we can take our own challenges and create something of our own that is bigger, better and more impacting. Maybe it is enough to make us realize what we've been fitted with isn't always good enough and our own determination and designs can change that.
However, this story speaks to you, I believe it will speak to you. Tune in for more about Van Phillips and the C-shaped prosthetic leg here.
Now you speak up: What Olympic stories are inspiring you this summer?
