Local office uses new technology to create lifelike prostheses
Geronimo Gonzales’ livelihood consisted of jumping off bridges and dancing through the streets of Disneyland.
“I didn’t care how scary it was, I would do it,” he said Tuesday.
But these days, Gonzales is more fearful than fearless after an intoxicated driver traveling in excess of 150 mph crashed into him, requiring amputation of both his legs above the knee. That was after nine surgeries, a traumatic brain injury and a litany of broken bones.
He got a big step closer to his former life while being fitted Tuesday with German prosthesis technology at the Achilles Prosthetics and Orthotics office in southwest Bakersfield.
Known as Symphonie Aqua System, the new machinery allows professionals to capture a mold of an amputee’s limb that very closely resembles the body part, said Logan Newton, a certified prosthetist and president of Achilles Prosthetics and Orthotics.
Traditionally, the mold is created when a patient is lying down, but the German technology alters the process, he added.
A Californian reporter and photographer watched as professionals slathered plaster of Paris over Gonzales’ right thigh. Instead of lying down, Gonzales stood upright and heaved his thigh into a cylindrical chamber. Highly pressurized water jetted from the machine and ensured plaster properly adhered to his thigh.
The mold system captures scar tissue and muscle definition while the patient is standing, Newton said, so the prosthesis can properly reflect a person’s body structure while vertical.
“The results are unparalleled,” said Keith Severson, director of patient care and services at Achilles Prosthetics and Orthotics, which has two locations in Bakersfield and offices along the California coast.
Andreas Radspieler, CEO of Romedis and creator of the Symphonie Aqua System, said he tried to create a process that
is easily taught and results in standard molds. Certified prosthetists are able to create different molds while working with the same patient, he added.
Amputees feel more comfort and wear the prosthesis longer because it matches their body, Severson said.
Gonzales’ mother, Diane Gonzales, said the commute to Achilles office is long and difficult for her son, who suffers from anxiety and PTSD as a result of the April 2019 accident. But prosthetics offices near their home in Tulare County did not offer much success, she said, so they decided to make the drive to Bakersfield.
“We are ready for him to walk,” she said.
Geronimo Gonzales had a few words to describe what he looks forward to once he can walk.
“Everything,” he said. “Living.”
You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417.