Chance Encounter Lifts Two Amputees

Fifteen years ago, Denise Hoffmann lost her left leg above the knee during her freshman year of college. But a couple months ago, a chance encounter in the P&O Care waiting room enabled her to encourage a new amputee, Sharon Shutz. Sharon had just lost her leg when she was hit by a car in a St. Louis-area mall parking lot. Seeing and talking with another woman about the same age, with the same AK amputation from trauma and the same difficulties shopping for shoes and jeans, gave Sharon the courage to look forward to her own future with confidence. The encounter also excited Denise, who got to see new technology now available as her old prosthesis was wearing out.

Next month, Denise and Sharon will both be featured in a segment about P&O Care on American Health Front, a half-hour show about advances in medical technology. It will air after the evening news on KMOV 4, September 6, at 6:30 pm. It's the relationship that our prosthetists and orthotists develop with their patients, and sometimes the relationships they develop with each other, that we feel make P&O Care a special place.