The Custom Pubs Program Includes: A branded, customized, eight-page magazine for your facility. Your front cover customized with your logo and branding. Your back cover customized with your locations, products, and services. Four issues with quality O&P content to help build relationships with your patients and referral sources (surgeons, physical and occupational therapists, physicians, etc.). Five different issue topics to choose from: § Lower-limb prosthetics § Upper-limb prosthetics § Orthotics § Pediatrics § Pedorthics It’s fast, easy, and affordable. Not marketing your facility is no longer an option! Grow your business with your company’s own branded, customized magazine. A custom publication highlights your company’s services and expertise in magazine format. Unlike a marketing brochure, a custom publication combines information about your facility with leading content from The O&P EDGE. This unique, high-end, specialty publication is designed to position your patient care facility as the orthotics, prosthetics, and/or pedorthics expert in your area. EX Contact Alyssa | [email protected] | 303.255.0843 | opedge.com/marketingservices 2 Spring 2017 www.bionicpo.com TD from Shriners Hospitals for Children®—Los Angeles, California. e CAPP TD is a pincer-like device that loosely mimics a hand’s grasping motion and is designed to hold objects securely. Because it is not intended for gymnas- tics use, Sydney did not wear her prosthesis while doing gymnastics, Howard says, and that posed some difficulties when trying to turn cartwheels, for example. A cartwheel is a continuous motion, and when done properly, the performer’s arms and legs resemble the spokes of a wagon wheel turning. However, one of Sydney’s “spokes” is a bit shorter. “We just thought we’d have her do gymnastics without [her pros- thesis], but her little arm comes probably to the top of her head, so when she was doing handstands or cartwheels it was pretty much on her head.” But that did not hold Sydney back. No Holds Barred Howard says that she and Nate knew five months into her pregnancy that Sydney was missing her hand. e couple researched the pros and cons of prosthetic use versus nonprosthetic use in children born with a limb difference and concluded that they would wait for Sydney to make the decision. “I think it was two weeks before her third birthday when she said, ‘Mommy, I want a hand,’” Howard recalls. As Sydney had already been approved to be fit for and provided with a prosthesis by Shriners, Howard says that getting the prosthesis was not a problem. However, she and Nate were cautioned that Sydney was probably not going to accept the device since she had not been acclimated to a harness and socket as an infant. Sydney instantly assuaged their doubts. “As soon as [the prosthe- tist] put that [CAPP TD] on her, she knew how to open Sydney Howard says that of all the gymnastics she does— the vault, the balance beam, the uneven bars, and the floor exercise—she prefers the uneven bars because when she is doing her routine it feels like she is “flying like a birdie.” “I’ll go from a back hip circle to a front hip circle to a flyaway off the high bar,” the ten-year-old explains. A flyaway is a dismount: the gymnast holds onto the high bar with both hands and swings her body up and away, gaining momentum with each swing so she can attain the height needed to execute a backflip before landing the jump. Except Sydney performs her flyaway with the aid of a gymnastics-specific terminal device (TD) because she does not have a left hand. Sydney was three years old when she first expressed an interest in gymnastics, says Andrea Howard, Sydney’s mother. When Howard looked into a possible class, the gymnastics instruc- tor turned her down for fear that Sydney would get hurt. Despite her and her husband Nate’s mindset that Sydney can do anything that anyone else can, Howard says they acquiesced—that is until another gymnastics instructor who worked at that same facility got wind of the situation and advocated on Sydney’s behalf. “I don’t know why I was in doubt,” Howard says. “I think maybe [it was] because of the bars [and wondering] how she was going to hold on.” While this was a valid concern, Sydney and her gymnas- tics coaches were able to work around it successfully. When Sydney began taking gymnastics lessons, she had recently been fit with her first prosthesis—a body-powered hand with a Child Amputee Prosthetics Project (CAPP) Flying Like a Birdie ” “ Sydney’s next goal is to do a backflip on the balance beam. Photographs courtesy of Andrea Howard. By Laura Fonda Hochnadel SYDNEY HOWARD: 3 Bionic Prosthetics and Orthotics and close it,” Howard says. “And she hasn’t had any prob- lems doing anything [since then]. She can button, tie her shoe, and cook.” Sydney is also athletic in other areas. In addition to gymnastics, she swims and plays basketball and soccer. She started riding a bicycle without training wheels when she was four years old, Howard recalls. Her mother calls her “Monkey,” and her soccer teammates called her “Shake- n-Bake” because of her ability to kick the soccer ball with either foot rather than favoring one over the other. Her shortened “spoke” has also been remedied. Shortly into her gymnastics training, Shriners provided Sydney with a TD that she says looks like an ice cream scoop—a TRS Super Sport mitt that she uses when playing soccer and basketball. It also helped her get the arm length she needs to turn cartwheels and better execute handsprings, Howard says—something that has made it more difficult for Sydney to keep both feet on the ground at times. Howard says that her daughter is known to spontaneously execute a well-practiced cartwheel or a front walkover while walking outside, in her house, or even in the school hallway (although the latter has now been forbidden). Sydney has also trained with the TD on the balance beam and uneven bars. A couple years later, because of Sydney’s commitment to gymnastics, Shriners provided her with another TRS TD—the Shroom Tumbler—which her father found during an Internet search. e Tumbler proved to be better suited for gymnastics. “We were looking at this big ‘mushroom’ on the end of her arm and [wondered] how she was going to lift it,” Howard says. “But Sydney figured that thing out….She started to do her back handsprings and front handsprings.” In early 2013, Sydney was fit with a TRS Swinger TD, a hook-shaped device capable of the grasping and releasing that is necessary to perform on uneven bars. e prosthesis also includes a “Stance Saddle” forearm design to provide stability and support when Sydney lifts herself above the bar. Sydney continues to advance in gymnastics. She is cur- rently a student at Perfect 10 Gymnastics Training studio. Studio owner and gymnastics coach Dean Archie says that he has fun teaching Sydney “because she has an extra challenge, but it doesn’t impede her,” such as needing assis- tance with her flyaway dismounts. “She wants to try the flyaway all the time. She doesn’t want to miss out on any- thing. She is always trying hard.” Howard and Archie describe Sydney as a no-holds- barred sort of girl. She is the first in line to volunteer to try a new gymnastic skill, and she doesn’t hold back, they agree. is attitude served her well when she competed for the first time at a regional meet in March 2013. e fol- lowing June, Sydney entered the United States Association of Independent Gymnastic Clubs State Championships in the Howards’ hometown of Tehachapi, California, where she achieved scores high enough to qualify for the World Gymnastics Competition in Palm Springs, California, the following month. At the World Gymnastics Competition, she was awarded the Buddy Goldsmith Scholarship Award for dedication and perseverance. Sydney has a lot of people rooting for her when she competes: her gymnastics coach, her teammates, and the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF). For the past two years, Sydney has received CAF grants to continue From left: Sydney displays her climbing ability. Sydney “flies” on the uneven bars. Professionally produced content that engages and educates your audience. Published by EDGE Marketing Services, a division of Western Media LLC. HEADLINE HERE Subhead Here Your Company Name Here WINTER 2018 YOUR COMPANY LOGO HERE Customized cover featuring your logo and your branding. 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