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ALS patient engineers own solution for weak legs

Published: Thursday, March 29, 2007 - 2:00 am
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Custom invention: Patient Ron Schaffer, left, and prosthetist Jeff Sprinkle check the fit of their brace on a cast of Schaffer's leg.

By Liv Osby
HEALTH WRITER
losby@greenvillenews.com

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Ron Schaffer was getting weaker by the day, the ALS slowly sapping the strength from his legs.

When he fell on Christmas Day, breaking three ribs, the Inman engineer resolved to design a lightweight leg brace that would keep him out of a wheelchair as long as possible.

Sketches in hand, he went looking for someone to help make his idea a reality, and found Jeff Sprinkle, a Spartanburg prosthetist. And with the help of prosthetic technician Bill Cooley, they developed a prototype they hope to produce for Schaffer and others like him.

"There are two problems when somebody has ALS or MS or any of those conditions," Sprinkle said. "Their legs are weak and the braces we have now are very heavy. If you've got a weak leg and wear a heavy brace, it makes it even worse."

The new brace is fashioned out of polypropylene plastic, which Schaffer says is both sturdy enough to keep him upright and light enough to allow him to move. And it has a joint at the knee that bends.

Schaffer and his wife, Stephanie, chose Sprinkle because he is an amputee and they figured he'd be in sync with what they were trying to do.

Now 38, the Greer native lost his leg 21 years ago in a lawn mower accident. Sprinkle says that life-changing event led him to participate in track and field events of the Paralympic Games where he met a prosthetist-orthotist who introduced him to the profession that has become his passion. He opened his own business a year and a half ago.

Last month, Schaffer, 61, brought his design to Sprinkle. And after checking the catalogs for something comparable without any success, they decided to give it a go.

"To be honest with you, when we realized we had an engineer telling us how to build something, that was scary," Sprinkle said. "But an engineer ought to know what he's doing, so we took his ideas and what we know about what we do and put them together and came up with a brace."

Originally from Rockford, Ill., the Schaffers moved to South Carolina when Ron was transferred with his job. Life went on as normal until 2003, when Ron began slurring his words. It took visits to five doctors over two years before he was diagnosed with ALS at the Mayo Clinic.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, attacks the motor neurons, causing degeneration in the brain and spinal cord. At first, ALS sufferers may experience a weakness in an arm or leg, but it progresses to difficulty walking, talking, swallowing and breathing. With no cure, it is usually fatal three to five years after the onset of symptoms, though some people live longer, some 10 years or more.

Though his mind's as sharp as ever, Ron Schaffer has difficulty speaking, whispering in a staccato style, omitting articles, prepositions and other nonessential words. And he's fallen a number of times because of the weakness in his legs.

"The problem is they either hyperextend their knee or their knee buckles and they fall," Sprinkle explains. "So we had to come up with some way to make a brace that is light and keep it from buckling and hyperextending when he walks."

To make the brace, they formed a plaster mold of Schaffer's leg, then used heat to mold the plastic to the form, Cooley said. They are now refining the prototype, which weighs less than a pound, and have applied for a patent.

Ron Schaffer wants to see the brace help other people with conditions that leave them weak. And of course he's looking forward to using it himself.

How long will it keep him out of a wheelchair?

"That," he whispers, "depends on the ALS."

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