Amputees Climb Mount Toubkal
Mark O’Leary and a team of amputees and healthcare professionals are climbing Mount Toubkal, the highest peak in the Moroccan High Atlas Mountains, in January 2012. The winter conditions we will experience will demand the use of crampons and iceaxe!
In February 2012 I will join an intrepid group of individuals attempting an ascent of Mount Toubkal in the Moroccan High Atlas Mountains. Nothing particularly unusual about that you may say, but on closer inspection you may decide to reconsider…
In September 2010 this same group completed an ascent of Kilimanjaro. Again, nothing unusual? This group, however, was composed of civilian amputees, prosthetists, physiotherapists and friends who attempted to scale Africa’s highest mountain to raise funds for the Limbless Association; a charity that gives aid and support to civilian amputees and their families. None of the amputees that climbed Kili, including myself, had any previous experience of an adventure on this scale. Over the course of our preparation and the nine days on the mountain, each of our participants, both disabled and able-bodied, faced challenges that were diverse, expected and also surprising. Despite the rigours of the trek, the altitude, and conditions wearing down prosthetic components and human users alike, a large proportion of those that set out made it to the summit. Ultimately, we faced these challenges to both raise money for charity and also to increase awareness of the continuing need to support amputees amongst the civilian population. This group of people has been somewhat overlooked in these times of conflict as returning injured servicemen rightly gain the attention, respect and support of the British people through charities such as Help for Heroes.
Far from overcoming the challenges of Kili and returning to our normal lives, a core of our group have developed a continuing thirst for adventure. We decided to increase the technicality of our next challenge and intend to tackle Mount Toubkal in the winter conditions found in February. The snow and ice present at this time of year will demand the use of crampons and an ice axe – items that none of us amputees taking part have used before.
In order to stand the highest chance of safely reaching the 4167m summit of Toubkal, we have engaged the services of a professional guide. He met myself and the group training on the North Downs in June (not very snowy!) and believes we are capable of making the ascent. We will also be completing a winter skills training weekend with our guide in early January in Scotland – the first opportunity that the majority of us will have to find our snow feet. In the case of a group with amputees, this can be taken both figuratively and literally! Our trip into the High Atlas Mountains will last five days, including the approach day, further winter skills training on day two, an ascent of a smaller peak on day three, the ascent of Toubkal on day four and our walk-off. Each of these days will once again present us amputees with the unique challenge of both the conditions and ascent whilst overcoming limitations imposed by prosthetics limbs including the need for maintenance of the prosthetics themselves and the vulnerable prosthetic/human interface.
We have four amputees including myself (above knee with ITAP) and three below knee amputees: Tel Leason, Andy Kneen (kili veterans) and Gordon ‘Flash’Vandrill (new to the group). Further able bodied members include Maggie Uden and Laura Burgess, both are physios that work in amputee rehab and are veterans of Kili along with Albert Joseph, Chris Baguley and Paul King-Fisher.
The final member of the group for Toubkal is Grace Stewart, an engineer from Stanmore Implants responsible for the performance of the ITAP failsafe component, who has been allowed to come with us by her boss as a ‘perk’ for all her hard work.
Each of the amputee participants of our challenge has their own unique difficulties to overcome, imposed by the injuries we sustained and the largely custom made prosthetics we use to function. Setting the routine daily challenge of the life of an amputee in the adventurous setting of a snowy mountain serves to highlight the pioneering nature of our species and epitomises the drive to overcome obstacles both small and significantly larger!
In my own case, I have been fortunate to be a participant in a clinical trial of a novel method of attaching my prosthetic (Intraosseous Transcutaneous Amputation Prosthesis, ITAP) which involved having a titanium rod surgically implanted in the residual bone of my femur. This protrudes through the skin and allows me to effectively bolt my prosthetic directly to my skeleton. Removing any soft tissue involvement in the prosthetic/human interface has allowed me to extend the use of my conventional prosthetic components far beyond what I was previously capable of doing. I can bolt my leg on in the morning, wear it all day without the usual soreness and pain of a conventional prosthetic fitting, and simply detach my leg prior to going to bed. During the Kilimanjaro trek I almost felt that I was ‘cheating’ relative to the other amputees with conventionally fitted limbs as my stump didn’t get sore or require any looking after during the daily trekking.
This type of implant has so far only been used on a small number people and my participation in the Kilimanjaro trek and the subsequent attempt to scale Toubkal will push the boundaries in the use of direct-skeletal fixation prosthetics. It is my hope that the massively enhanced utility of my prosthetic system will be demonstrated by my attempting such challenges, providing motivation and encouragement to the biomedical scientists that created my implant and the medical community and government to keep funding such pioneering advances in the technology of prosthetics. I managed to reach the summit of Kili and intend to go on proving that a willing spirit and suitable application of technology can take persons that are considered disabled to heights few think we are capable of reaching!
