April Limb Loss Awareness Month

Every year, the Amputee Coalition (AC) nationally promotes April as Limb Loss Awareness Month, and holds a number of events. Dankmeyer has been so happy to help promote and participate in Limb Loss Awareness Month once again. This year, we went all out for all orange shirts on Wednesdays, with staff members wearing any flavor of orange shirt they might have (and some of those might have been Baltimore Orioles related). We made orange ribbons for office visitors to pick up and wear to show their support. We posted on Facebook and Instagram, and we were even featured in the Central Maryland Chamber of Commerce newsletter.

Dankmeyer staff members (including 3DPO the 3D intern) show their support for Limb Loss Awareness!

Dankmeyer staff members (including 3DPO the 3D intern) show their support for Limb Loss Awareness!

Karen Russell. with the Central Maryland Chamber of Commerce, along with Robb Brown, Rochelle Dumm and Barbara Delorenzo, kick off Limb Loss Awareness month at Dankmeyer.

The northern Baltimore area office, located on the Sinai Hospital campus, hosted one of their “Coffee with Dankmeyer” events, which was orange themed! The office staff, Sheryl Sachs, CPO and Jeanne Smith, Patient Services Representative, proudly displayed a proclamation that they had presented to Governor Hogan to sign, declaring April to be Limb Loss Awareness Month in Maryland. This was part of a national effort by the AC to have a proclamation in every state. Even Moxie, Jeanne’s adopted English Setter mix, came in to get her new prosthesis and had her picture taken with her prosthetist, Jed Newhardt, CPO.

Jeanne also took a day again this year to participate in the annual Hill Day in Washington, DC and provided this report:

On April 3, I was one of 130 people on The Hill advocating for the Limb Loss and Limb Difference Community.  The day was spent meeting with elected officials to advocate and educate for insurance fairness, funding for research and programs, and protecting access for qualified prosthetic care.  Limb loss brings individuals to The Hill, but each person’s talents, uniqueness, compassion, determination, strengths and stories create the bond that makes them unstoppable. 

Thanks to all the elected officials and their staff for taking the time for our voices to be heard.  At the end of the day of meetings, a glance at my step tracker read 12,100 steps!  There were a lot of steps combined by all 130 participants to Amplify their voices for the Limb Loss Community. Hope to see you on The Hill in 2020!

A number of Dankmeyer patients participated in Limb Loss Awareness Month by posing for pictures to Show Their Mettle! for the month long event.

For more information on the month long series of events for Limb Loss Awareness, and all of the resources provided by the Amputee Coalition, click here.






Art Ross Wins 2nd in Creative Foot Shell Contest

Art Ross, one of Dankmeyer’s talented Fabrication Technicians, is a very creative guy. In addition to the magic he works when fabricating prostheses and orthoses, he is the mastermind behind 3DPO, directional signs inside the Linthicum office, some of our website and newsletter graphics and his famous chicken costumes. He is also well known around the office for his tongue-in-cheek foot shell designs.

You may remember when Art competed in the Orthotic & Prosthetic Activities Foundation (OPAF) foot shell decorating contest a few years ago. The OPAF and The First Clinic's Feet First annual contest challenges people in our field to take a prosthetic foot shell and decorate it any way they want. The winners are determined by a popular vote. It is an event that allows us to be creative and to be encouraged by the creativity of others.  This year Art decided to give it another go.

Congratulations to all those who submitted entries, but a special shout out to our own Art Ross for winning second place with his ToeTruck!

Welcome Michelle Forbus to Dankmeyer!

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If you see a new face at Dankmeyer’s Linthicum or Eastern Shore office, say hello to new resident Michelle Forbus. Michelle is part of the unique prosthetics and orthotics program at Baylor in Houston, TX. The Baylor College of Medicine Orthotics and Prosthetics Program is described on their website as “the only academic program in the nation in which the dual clinical residency requirements are included. Program graduates are eligible to sit for both Orthotics and Prosthetics board certification exams upon completion of their M.S. degree.” As part of this program, Michelle will go to several different prosthetic and orthotic practices to do 3-6 month residency rotations. She will be with us at Dankmeyer for six months and then leave for the next part of her training.

Originally from Crofton, Maryland, Michelle did her undergraduate work at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD, majoring in Exercise Science. She was happy to return to Maryland to do a portion of her residency work close to friends and family. Outside the office, she enjoys hiking, swimming, and camping.

Dankmeyer Office At Sinai Hospital Remodeled

Jeanne and Sheryl.

Sheryl Nathanson, CPO and Jeanne Smith, Patient Services Representative hosted a little holiday gathering on December 19th to show off the newly remodeled Dankmeyer office space on the Sinai Hospital Campus. This Dankmeyer office, in the Morton Mower Building, has been serving patients in north Baltimore since 1991.

Wednesday’s get-together gave professionals on campus a chance to drop in and see what Dankmeyer staff have been working on for the past few months. Virtually everything from floor to ceiling (except the ceiling itself!) has undergone a makeover. While the wraps came off the new space in October, the finishing touches are still being applied. Sheryl and Jeanne were eager to provide this sneak peak while offering snacks and beverages as a quick break from the busy holiday season. They were joined by Amy Smith, Executive Assistant, in setting up this holiday themed coffee social they call “Coffee with Dankmeyer”. Even 3DPO put in an appearance.

We are looking forward to a Grand Opening come spring, when all the final pieces and parts are in place and everyone will be ready to celebrate with us the end of winter and new beginnings. Until then, here are a few pictures to give you a glimpse of the changes we have made to better serve our patients. Starting with a picture of the “old” waiting area, enter through the new door to see some changes!

Clinical Update Regarding Post-Operative Care for Amputees

Nina Bondre, CPO, has prepared a summary report on material presented at the American Orthotic & Prosthetic Association (AOPA) National Assembly in Vancouver late September. Professionals and amputees alike may find this information of interest. Citations and links to the information presented here can be found at the end for those interested in more detail.

Angie Bryl, Mark Hopkins and Jed Newhardt all attended the September AOPA meeting from Dankmeyer. One of the most interesting pieces of information they returned with was a clinical update regarding post-operative care for amputees. There are many methods of handling a person's residual limb following an amputation, and the studies presented at AOPA helped to provide some support and evidence for current practice and to encourage new standards. 

Multiple studies demonstrated that a rigid dressing following amputation were superior compared to soft dressings, both for decreasing time to fitting, and for reducing incidental injury/trauma to the limb during healing (Reichmann et al, 2018). 

Peer visitation during the post-operative phase is also extremely important and currently quite undervalued. In a trial that included individual peer visits for patients that had undergone an amputation, 92% responded positively to the peer visit. In addition, 1-6 months following the visit, 92% still said that their outlook had been improved due to the peer visit. The recommendation from this study is that peer visits should be encouraged and sought after for everyone who undergoes a major amputation (Reichmann and Bartman, 2018).

People who have amputations in fact have a higher fall risk than those who have experienced a stroke, when compared in similar settings of hospitals and inpatient rehabilitation facilities. 3% of those with lower limb amputations who fall end up needing a revision surgery, and half of the revisions will result in a transfemoral amputation as the final level. However, if the patient is wearing a well-fitting rigid removable dressing at the time of the fall, the falls that end up in a revision surgery are eliminated (Gooday and Hunter, 2004).

For more detailed information, these are the links to the relevant documents. Click to access.

Reichmann, J. P., & Bartman, K. R. (2018). An integrative review of peer support for patients undergoing major limb amputation.Journal of Vascular Nursing, 36(1), 34-39. doi:10.1016/j.jvn.2017.10.002


Reichmann, J. P., & Kritter, A. E., Jr. (2018, June). Evidence-Based Post-Operative Care for Transtibial Amputees. The O&P EDGE.


Reichmann, J. P., Stevens, P. M., Rheinstein, J., & Kreulen, C. D. (2018). Removable Rigid Dressings for Postoperative Management of Transtibial Amputations: A Review of Published Evidence. Pm&r, 10(5), 516-523. doi:10.1016/j.pmrj.2017.10.002