Breakthrough Partnership Brings Second Chance and Prosthetic Technology To 22 Year Old Quad Amputee

Aug. 19, 2010 - PRLog -- Evansville, Indiana/Eagle, Colorado. Kendra Creek will receive four amazing limbs after her extremities were amputated during a life-threatening battle with bacterial meningitis. Second Chance with Saving Grace (SCwSG) partnered with Riverside Prosthetics & Orthotics to present Creek with this gift and hope for a productive future. She will receive new high-tech prosthetics for both her lower arms and legs when her residual limbs are healed and ready to be fitted.

In May, Dr. Diane Dike Founder and President of SCwSG went to the local UPS store to ship Love Kits to hurting people. She learned the former UPS associate was in the hospital fighting for her life and that her extremities would be amputated in just a few days because they had turned black.

Creek’s mind-boggling ordeal started on May 1, 2010 with a headache, visit to the emergency room and being hospitalized for bacterial meningitis. Her body went septic and began to shut down causing the blood to rush to her vital organs making her extremities turn black. Creek's story is especially moving to Dike who was only 23 when her legs turned black and were almost amputated. Dike’s compelling medical story aired on Mystery Diagnosis TV, "The Woman Whose Legs Turned Black". Upon hearing about Kendra’s need for help, Diane immediately set up the Kendra Creek Medical Fund at the First Bank in Eagle, Colorado and has worked tirelessly to raise funds to buy Kendra new arms and legs. They have accomplished that goal because of Tom Whitehurst, CPO of Riverside Orthotics & Prosthetics and now they will even be able to pay the majority of costs to provide Kendra with a safe handicapped accessible home when she is released from the hospital.

“Kendra wasn’t expected to make it but she did!” says Dike. “She was saved for a purpose and we are going to do all we can to help her during this difficult time.” SCwSG is a leading International non-profit organization dedicated to environmental stewardship, disability awareness and etiquette training, and helping hurting people and animals. Dike is an award-winning Author, Speaker, Singer, and Rare Blood Disease Survivor/Warrior. After rescuing an abandoned, broken Italian Greyhound Diane trained her to be her Service dog and now they go where no woman and dog have gone before. She's learned to live with her disease while finding ways to help others and has been an incredible inspiration to Kendra. Dike is also trying to connect Kendra with a Service dog when she is ready.

SCwSG is grateful along with all of its supporters and volunteers to help Kendra get a safe place to live and the i-LIMB Hands and lower leg prostheses with articulating ankle joints and split toe features that will allow her to wear flip flops (at Kendra’s request)! SCwSG is proud to partner with Whitehurst, her prosthetist, who will measure, design and fit Kendra over the next several months. He quickly determined that the latest technology from Touch Bionics, the i-LIMB would be the best fit to help Kendra move into this season of her life.

“The i-LIMB is a prosthetic device with five individually powered digits,” says Whitehurst. “This artificial limb looks and acts like a real human hand and represents a generational advance in bionics and patient care.” It is expected that Kendra will have a full range of motion for her hands, and her fingers. This will help her to pursue her dream of helping children and as a SCwSG Motivational Speaker. “Kendra will learn to utilize each finger independently through muscle and nerve signals generated from the upper hand,” Dike explained. “An individual motor in each finger allows for everyday movement such as grabbing a key, a ball, and many other activities that we often take for granted.”

Riverside Orthotics & Prosthetics is a full service facility serving people who require prosthetic and orthotic support due to disease, malformation, accidents or amputation. “I was thankful to get a call from Diane whose support was necessary for us to be able to help Kendra with high performance prosthetic limbs that fit comfortably, look real, and perform as natural extensions of the body,” explained owner Tom Whitehurst. “Touch Bionics is a leading developer of advanced upper-limb prosthetics. In late 2009, Touch Bionics brought to market ProDigits, the world's first bionic fingers for partial hand amputees.” Whitehurst further explained, “This revolutionary product followed the 2007 launch of the i-LIMB Hand, a first-to-market prosthetic device with five individually powered digits. The acquisition of LIVINGSKIN in 2008 enabled the company to apply its commercial and technical expertise into new cosmesis solutions for multi-articulating hands and digits. Touch Bionics continues to develop leading-edge technologies for the treatment of patients with upper-limb deficiencies.”

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For further information about supporting SCwSG outreach work, to volunteer, donate or help in any way, please contact Diane at: Diane@DianeDike.org or call: 303-225-2717 or visit: http://www.DianeDike.org
For more information about Riverside or Touch Bionics please visit:
www.touchbionics.com or contact Cindy Whitehurst, Owner Riverside Orthotics & Prosthetics, Inc. 5921 Vogel Rd., Evansville, IN 47715
Phone: 812.479.7577 C. 812.499.1769 Fax: 812.479.7595
Email: cindy@riversideoandp.com or cwhitehurst@wowway.com