Thursday, February 1, 2007

Nothing Slows Down Janetta

Janetta Rogers is one of the most vibrant and active eight-year-olds you could ever meet. And the fact that she wears two prosthetic legs has never slowed her down. Janetta enjoys strolling the mall, winning summer camp relay races, and even ice skating! Her YouTube videos below have already been viewed over 10,000 times. Her newest venture is playing on a third grade girls basketball team.


Born with a rare condition known as PFFD (Proximal Femoral Focal Deficiency), Janetta has worn a right above-the-knee prosthesis and a left below-the-knee prosthesis since she was one year old. Her prosthetist, Dan Luitjohan, sees her more often than most patients ot make adjustments as she grows.

The Amputee Coalition of America reports that roughly one out of every 200 Americans live with limb loss, with 82% due to diabetes and peripheral vascular disease. Comparatively, congenital-related limb dificiencies happen in only 26 out of every 100,000 births. In the US, this rate has remained stable over the past thirty years, while the rate of trauma-related amputations has decreased and the rate of dysvascular amputations has risen considerably.

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