Army Major Ed “Flip” Klein is an outdoorsman. Born in Arkansas, the 35-year-old always found a calming presence in nature, but when he was severely injured during a 2012 deployment to Afghanistan, he wasn’t sure he’d ever find that calm again.
(FOX)- In October 2012, Klein was a company commander in his seventh month of a nine-month deployment and out on patrol with one of his platoons. The troops split in two, and were walking through a compound with a mine detection K-9 and officer, who crossed over an improvised explosive device (IED) before Klein unknowingly stepped on it with his left foot and it detonated.
Klein said he quickly learned that he wouldn’t know what he was capable of unless he continually pushed his limits. He credited exposure to other amputees in MATC with helping him set goals and explore his abilities, rather than focus on his disability. Through a Special Forces friend of his brother, he was hooked up with a program called Operation Healing Towers that would prove critical to his healing process. The program is run by Vietnam-era veterans and sponsors fishing expeditions in Alaska.
Initially, Klein didn’t know if he would be able to go because he wasn’t sure if he would be able to fish or even hold a pole, but Laufer’s team had a solution.
Laufer’s team worked with Dr. Peter Liacouras, director of services in the 3-D Medical Applications Center at Walter Reed, to create a 3-D printed attachment that would be fastened to a terminal device, rather than act as the terminal device so that amputees would have the functionality of two hands. This device cut out the process of attaching a prosthetic hand to bait the hook, taking the hand off and attaching the pole to cast it, reeling in the fish and then removing the pole device to reattach the hand to deal with the fish. The new attachment attached to the existing hand device and was even fastened with a quick-release button for when the fish was reeled in.
Klein was fitted with the device and set off on his first trip to Alaska, where he met program founder Garry Morfit. In talks while out on the water with Morfit, Klein rediscovered his sense of self.
“I don’t think I would have even tried fishing with the pre-existing terminal devices because I had been introduced to them before, and I said that’s not going to be effective enough for me to put any energy into fishing. When they showed me the 3-D printed device, I allowed myself to say, ‘Well, that’s going to work well enough to overcome the physical challenges that I face in every other aspect.’”
Klein said the attachment gave him the opportunity to not just be a recipient of the experience, but to also be a part of the experience. The device gave him the confidence to go on the trip where he learned other skills he didn’t know he had, like the ability to climb a ladder out of the boat. He even credits the trip with helping to save his life when a catastrophic fire tore through his house shortly after his return. He had been in the basement with his dogs and had to climb stairs to get out. Without the trip, he’s not sure if he would have known how to climb the stairs.
Klein said he wants other amputees to understand the importance of pushing themselves and their recovery to the limits. He believes the practice has had a trickledown effect in every area of life. Laufer agrees, and is he ready to accept the challenge placed before him by amputees looking to define their new normal. He also admits that, while prosthetics have advanced over the last 15 years, there still is a long way to go but that’s what keeps his team motivated.