AMPUTEE SUPPORT ASSOCIATION
SUNSHINE COAST INC.
P.O. Box 1374, BUDERIM QLD 4556
NEWSLETTER
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GENERAL MEETING
Meetings are held the 3rd TUESDAY of each month at 10 A.M. at
EDUCATION CENTRE, HIBISCUS RETIREMENT RESORT Lakehead Drive, Chancellor Park
For information please contact: President: 5493 4346
(No Meeting in December or January) |
December 2015 to February 2016 |
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
President: Cliff Hargreaves 5493 4346
Secretary: Debbie Murr 5478 9286
Treasurer: Bob McClintock 5443 4561
Committee Members:
Joy Laxton 5442 1860
Graham Flatters 5477 1818
Welfare/Liaison Cliff Hargreaves 5493 4346
Newsletter Editor With thanks to the Office of Mark McArdle, Member for Caloundra
Contact Debbie Murr debbie@amputeesupport.net.au
Website www.amputeesupport.net.au
Patrons:
Fiona Simpson MP 5443 7995
Member for Maroochydore
Jarrod Bleijie MP 5478 1189
Member for Kawana
Clinics by Appointments Only
Nambour Clinic – 3rd Thursday of each Month
For Appointment Telephone: (07) 3636 7286
Currimundi Clinic, Coora Street, Currimundi – 1st and 3rd Thursday of each Month
For an Appointment telephone: 3266 1255
Disclaimer: The material contained in this publication is in the nature of general comment only and never purports, nor is intended to be advice on any particular matter.
Readers should not act or rely upon any matter or information contained or implied by this publication without taking appropriate professional advice which relates specifically to their particular circumstances. The Association expressly disclaims all and any liability to any person whether an Association member or not, who acts or fails to act as a consequence of reliance upon the whole or part of the publication.
President’s Report
As we near the end of another year we are still going strong with good attendances at our general meetings at Chancellor Park on the third Tuesday of the month. The cuppa and a bite to eat after the meeting enables members to socialise and discuss common problems.
In our June to August newsletter, in the “Upcoming Events”, we listed a free lunch at Coco’s Beach Café on 22nd September. Unfortunately due to internal problems within the café we had to cancel it. We tried to advise our regulars of the cancellation and as far as we know none of our members turned up on the day. Hopefully when we are due to hold our next one in March the café’s problems will have been sorted out or we will have found a different venue.
We are holding our Christmas Dinner at Mooloolaba Bowls Club on Sunday 13th December. These dinners are well attended and I hope that many of you will be able to be with us.
I wish to thank my executive for the help they give me throughout the year and a big thankyou to you, our members, because without you there would be no Association.
Some of our members have had a difficult year with their health and we hope that life gets better for them. Sadly we have lost two of our long time members – August van Altena (“Van”) and Eric Svendsen in the last three months and our prayers go out to their loved ones.
In closing, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous New Year.
Cliff Hargreaves
Welfare Report
I have seen five amputees in hospitals around the coast in the last three months with some a number of times. I have also seen five in their homes when I have delivered or collected our loan equipment. Some of them are having a difficult time with their amputations while others are going well and looking forward to getting a prosthesis.
Our female member who had osseo-integration done below the knee went back to hospital in Sydney for two months. She was then transferred to Eden at Cooroy to improve her walking. She is now home and having physio several times a week. Hopefully she is over the problems she incurred earlier and will be able to walk well without crutches very soon.
There has been a steady stream of equipment lent out and returned. We are still endeavouring to obtain lightweight wheelchairs with stump supports. Unfortunately all of our wheelchairs are steel and when we loan them out to an amputee their partner has difficulty in lifting them into a car.
Once again I would like to say many thanks to Mr Martin Butler from Enterprise Storage Sheds for allowing us a shed in which to store our equipment. He donated it to us in July 2011 and his gift is very much appreciated.
Cliff
Secretary’s Report
Wow! We are already near the end of the year.
I would like to say a special thankyou to all my helpers.
- Joy Laxton for printing, stapling and posting the newsletters
- Grahame Flatters for looking after membership
- Karen Nicholson for taking care of our newsletter
- Chanelle McKenna looks after our website
- Chris Price looks after raffle tickets and sells them at our meetings
- Thanks to President Cliff and Treasurer Bob for your support, Grahame and Joy for supporting the Executive meetings and to each of you for being a member.
Our general meetings have been going well, with those attending enjoying a cuppa and chat after the meeting. Don’t forget there is no meeting December and January.
I’m looking forward to seeing you all at our Christmas lunch 13th December, 12 noon, Mooloolaba Bowls Club.
I’d like to wish you all a happy, healthy and safe Christmas and 2016.
Regards, Debbie
Upcoming Events
- Christmas lunch Sunday 13th December 2015 12 noon Mooloolaba Bowls Club
Adults $15 each and children $10 each
Please bring a gift to the value of around $10, so everyone receives a gift
Please notify Debbie 0416 042 735 or Cliff 5493 4346 by 4th December if you are attending, as we have to pay for the function in advance.
- Tuesday 16th February 2016 General Meeting 10am
Hibiscus Retirement Resort, Education Centre
Lakehead Drive, Sippy Downs
Morning tea and chat after meeting
- Easter Raffle Thursday 10th, Friday 11th, Saturday 12th March 2016 at Kawana Shoppingworld
- Tuesday 15th March General Meeting 10am
Hibiscus Retirement Resort, Education Centre
Lakehead Drive, Sippy Downs
Morning tea and chat after meeting
- Easter Raffle Tuesday 22nd, Wednesday 23rd, Thursday 24th March 2016 at Kawana Shoppingworld, raffle drawn at 4pm
News
Source:
WE WERE THERE: Our little Aussie battler inspires us all
Finn Smith with parents Jason and Sarah settle back in at home. Photo: Warren Lynam / Sunshine Coast Daily
He was the tiniest baby, but he captured the whole of the Sunshine Coast’s heart.
And he is the little battler who continues to inspire us at every milestone he reaches.
Finn Smith beat the odds when he fought for his life after he contracted the deadly bacterial infection meningococcal.
The 13-month Pacific Paradise boy was in an induced coma on November 11, 2013.
Within days, as is always the way on the Sunshine Coast, friends, family and you, our readers, were rallying around to help any way you could.
“We feel so touched,” Finn’s mother Sarah said on November 29 after the outpouring of help and support.
Our reporter Kathy Sundstrom, a mother herself, was so moved by the family’s plight that she followed every step of his journey.
“He had to have surgery on December 12, 2013 to have his fingertips amputated,” she said.
“He was allowed home for a few hours on Christmas Day then he had to return to hospital for more amputations. It was devastating but the family was so brave, and Finn was such a battler.”
He battled through his amputations and into the New Year until eventually Finn was allowed to come home. His proud parents Sarah and Jason all the while saying how grateful they were to the community.
His journey didn’t stop when he got home and nor did the Coast’s admiration and support waver.
When his family was denied carer benefit, we were there fighting for the right thing to be done. Centrelink soon ensured his parents were both given carer’s allowance.
Finn got new legs on February 18, 2014 then he went through surgery to give him new feet in July 2014. In October 2014, he had his 17th operation - this time on his left hand - yet he still smiled and braved the procedures.
He swam, he had a go on a skateboard, played basketball, and slowly but surely he began to enjoy the childhood he deserved.
Thank you Finn for inspiring the Coast and thank you for letting us follow your journey.
News
Source: BBC News http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34044453
Open Bionics robotic hand for amputees wins Dyson Award
A prototype 3D-printed robotic hand that can be made faster and more cheaply than current alternatives is this year’s UK winner of the James Dyson Award.
The Bristol-raised creator of the Open Bionics project says he can 3D-scan an amputee and build them a custom-fitted socket and hand in less than two days.
The device at the lower-end of the pricing scale and the upper end of functionality.
It is very lightweight and it can be customised for each person.
The 25-year-old inventor intends to charge customers £2,000 for the device, including the cost of a fitting.
Although prosthetic arms fitted with hooks typically can be bought for similar prices, ones with controllable fingers are usually sold for between £20,000 and £60,000.
That cost can sometimes be prohibitive for children, who usually need to change their prosthetic once or twice a year to take account of their growth.
Open Bionics’ hand relies on myoelectric signals, meaning it detects muscle movements via sensors stuck to the owner’s skin and uses them to control its grip.
A single flex of the wearer’s muscles opens and closes the fingers, while a double flex changes the shape to form a pinch grip.
Although the user cannot feel what the fingers are touching, sensors built into the digits can tell when they come into contact with an object to limit the pressure they exert.
This means owners can pick up objects as fragile as an egg without crushing them. They will begin selling in the second half of 2016.
News
Source:
“I had to lose my legs before I could kick my drug habit”
JASON Sauer had to lose his legs before he could find his way.
His is a tough lesson about what can happen to some who start dabbling in drugs at an early age and then spiral into serious addiction.
In Jason’s case breaking free of the drugs that have controlled his life since he first tried pot as a 15-year-old Maroochydore High School student took even more than the heroin overdose that led to his legs being amputated above the knees in 2011.
“Be careful,” is the warning he offers today’s Sunshine Coast teen population.
“You see people who dabble in drugs but still function. But they can destroy you.”
Now a member of the Park City All Ability ski team in the US, he leaves the Sunshine Coast in two weeks for a series of World Cup races, the results of which will determine whether he pushes for Olympic selection in the Australian team for the 2018 Winter Olympics.
The former Kawana Surf Life Saving Club competitor, who also played rugby league for the Maroochydore Swans, was an accomplished skier.
IT WAS on the ski fields of Mt Hotham where he first tried pot when he still held hopes of converting his natural ability with maths, science and graphics into a professional career. Instead Jason left school three months short of the end of Year12, by which time he had shifted to Burnside High.
By the time he was 16, family and friends could see he had a problem with substance abuse, something he didn’t acknowledge until he was 23.
“When dad died in May ’95 I was 23. I skied the winter out and started trying to tidy up,” Jason said.
Instead he ended up completely off the rails.
He was using pot, alcohol, speed, ecstasy, acid and mushrooms. He had cracks at plumbing apprenticeships both at Mount Buller and in Nambour, but was in and out of drug rehabilitation centres and detox units from Victoria to Queensland.
“I gave up on myself,” Jason said. At one stage he checked into a Melbourne detox unit. Within a month of leaving he was back again.
The chaos continued until he struck a period from 2003 to 2008 when he was clean and sober, back on the Coast earning good money plumbing and doing security work.
At the end of 2008 he treated himself to a Canadian ski holiday, met a girl, came home, packed up his possessions and headed back overseas.
“It was a live-in relationship but I was stoned within two months,” Jason said.
Again he cleaned himself up and by October 2010 had reconciled with his girlfriend.
Then on Christmas Day that year the by then 38-year-old relapsed on heroin.
A massive overdose saw him lay propped immobile on a friend’s kitchen floor for 14 hours.
A lack of oxygenated blood to his extremities meant his legs and feet were dying and poisoning his system.
By the time an ambulance was called at 2pm on Boxing Day he was suffering renal failure and spent four weeks on dialysis.
On the second day of the New Year doctors told him he might live if they amputated his legs.
“I thought it was a bad dream and that I would wake up shortly,” Jason said.
It wasn’t and he didn’t.
Instead after being flown back to Australia in February, 2011, Jason went through months of treatment only to be released from hospital and back into addiction.
“I couldn’t tolerate myself straight but when I was stoned it amplified that and I would just be in tears,” he said.
His salvation came when a Facebook friend, an incomplete quadriplegic and enthusiastic bobsledder, invited him to Park City in the US to join an adaptive bobsled driving school.
Even then the vice-like grip of drugs could not be broken. Jason had barely touched down in the US when he “rorted” a doctor into prescribing him Oxychodone.
It was going to be a final goodbye to that life. It lasted only until the next morning. Sickened by how hopeless he had become, Jason attended a meeting for addicts on December 29, 2011, came home, flushed the drugs down the toilet and has since been free of everything except nicotine and caffeine.
During a week of bobsled training he met people further along post injury than himself who were over self-pity and enjoying life.
“I got to experience a day doing something enjoyable that really turned the light on for me,” Jason said.
On the anniversary of his amputations he was sliding a skeleton downhill at speed and by the end of January 2012 had started sit skiing.
Jason owes his fresh grip on life to the National Ability Centre in Park City that is a hub for athletes of all abilities. By February 2012 he was a member of the alpine ski team and had contested his first race.
In April, 2012, he was gifted a pair of micro processor knees which were fitted by the Hanger Clinic in Oklahoma and has not used a wheelchair since.
Since then he has steered a bobsled down Austria’s slopes and the Utah Olympic Park, returned sober to Mt Hotham and spent three months with the Australian squad.
He wasn’t invited back to do more work with the Australian squad but will continue this US World Cup season with the Park City team before reassessing his future.
Ideally Jason would like a role where he could share his experiences as a warning to today’s adolescents about the risks they face if they go down a similar path.
Vale August van Altena
Van was born in Assen, The Netherlands in 1920. The son of a Dutch Army Officer. His parents were shifted on average every four years, so they lived in just about every region in The Netherlands.
After finishing high school, Van enrolled to a degree course in Tropical Forestry aimed at a career in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. This was in 1941 during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands.
Early in 1942, the Nazis demanded a declaration of loyalty to the occupying authorities from all university students. The 90 or so students who refused to sign were denied access to the university. Those students, like Van, were declared jobless and were ordered to assemble in certain places and packed into goods trains and transported to work camps in Germany.
Van and quite a few others saw through the ploy and went into hiding with the help of underground movement. He worked in a dairy farm in the northern front of the country.
Van was discovered by a Dutch Nazi and with others was put into a concentration camp waiting for transport to Germany as forced labourers. Another forestry student and Van landed in the Hartz Mountains and were appointed technicians charged with estimating the volume per hectare of standing state forests. The Germans they associated with were mostly anti-nazi.
They even arranged for Van to visit his father who was a POW in the western part of Germany. They were eventually liberated by the American Army and they promptly grabbed Van as an interpreter as he could speak German as well as English. This was in 1945. He eventually started studying again in 1946 and graduated in 1951.
Foresters were returning from Indonesia and so he decided to emigrate to Australia. He met the principal of the forestry school in Canberra who arranged for Van a year Postgraduate Scholarship, which gave him an Australia Forestry Diploma. After graduation, Van was sent to Atherton to work in the Forestry Research Station. He had good memories of his time there. His work then changed from rainforest to pine plantations when it was decided to start a Tropical Plantation program. He married in Holland and his son and daughter were born in Atherton. When their children were at university his wife returned to Holland.
Van was transferred to Cardwell and then at his request to Beerwah where he was able to see more of his daughter. His son was in Canada doing a Doctorate in Organic Chemistry.
While living in Beerwah at the research station he met Winsome. Winsome lived in Caloundra with her two youngest sons, the older sons worked in Brisbane.
They married in 1978 and built a house in Caloundra. When Van refused a transfer to Gympie where the research station was being transferred, he retired instead.
Feedback
Our association with the Amputee Association commenced in 1997 when after having a minor procedure in day surgery I was to go on and lose both my legs and all my fingers.
Cliff, Bill and lots of members were a great support.
My biggest support has been my husband, Van, who was always there to help in any way he could.
Winsome van Altena, Beerwah.
Just for laughs
My favourite things (As seen in Glasshouse Country and Maleny News)
Botox and nose drops and needles for knitting,
Walkers and handrails and new dental fitting.
Bundles of magazines tied up with string, these are a few of my favourite things.
Zimmer frames and cataracts, hearing aids and bus passes,
Poly grip and Fixadent and false teeth and glasses,
Pacemakers, W.I and warblers that sing,
These are a few of my favourite things.
When the pipes leak,
When the bones creak,
When the knees go bad,
I try to remember my favourite things, and then I don’t feel so bad.
Hot tea and crumpets and corn pads for bunions, no spicy hot food or food with cooked onions.
Bathrobes and heating pads,
Hot meals they bring, can I remember my favourite things?
Back pain, confused brain and no change of sinning,
Thin bones and fractures and hair that is thinning.
And we won’t mention our short shrunken frames,
When re remember our favourite things, when the joints ache, when the hips break,
When the eyes grow dim, then I remember the great life I’ve had, and then I don’t feel, so bad.
Submitted by Eunice Prickett, Peachester.
Birthdays for December
Colin Bath, Antony Bilton, Sheree Boshow, John Doran, Grahame Flatters, Mike Gillooly, Paula Gowland, Wendy McLean, Noel Nash, Colette Oliver, Steve Saroglia, Janice Waters
Birthdays for January
Janet Alderdice, Kane Bilton, Frank Connolly, Anne Deans, Daphne Gillooly, Jock Goodall, Bob McClintock, Jason Smith, Geoff Todd, Peter Williams
Birthdays for February
Chris Chandler, Roger Clark, Tony Enchelmaier, Maryke Franz, Peter Franz, Cliff Hargreaves, Heppy Kelly, Bryan Miller, Maureen Price, Sarah Smith
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Support Groups and Resources
Amputee Support Association Sunshine Coast Inc. Artificial Limbs & Appliances Pty. Ltd. Aged & Community Hotline Aged Care Queensland Brisbane Prosthetics and Orthotics Caloundra Community Health Services Carers Queensland – Maroochydore Commonwealth Carelink Community Alternative Transport Services (Maroochydore) Council on the Ageing Disability Information Service Elder Abuse Helpline Goodwill Orthopaedics Home Assist Caloundra Home Assist Maroochydore Home Assist Noosaville Lifeline Sunshine Coast Maroochy Home Assist Secure Maroochydore Community Health Services M.A.S.S. (Medical Aids Subsidy Scheme) Meals on Wheels Caloundra Meals on Wheels Coolum Beach Meals on Wheels Maroochydore Meals on Wheels Nambour Meals on Wheels Tewantin-Noosa Nambour Community Health Services Nambour & District Care (including Transport) Noosa Community Health Services Queensland Amputee Limb Service (QALS) Royal Brisbane Hospital for Appointments St Vincent de Paul Caloundra St Vincent de Paul Maroochydore St Vincent de Paul Nambour St Vincent de Paul Noosaville Suncoast Cabs Ltd, Disabled Person Taxi Suncoast Community Cabs Suncoast Transport and Care (formerly H.A.C.C.) Sunshine Orthopaedic Services The St John’s Ambulance – Silver Cord Telephone The Salvation Army Currimundi The Salvation Army Maroochydore The Salvation Army Community Services Nambour Veteran’s Home Care Veteran’s Home Maintenance |
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AMPUTEE SUPPORT ASSOCIATION SUNSHINE COAST INC.
NEW APPLICATION Date: …………………………….
YEARLY MEMBERSHIP: $15.00 PER PERSON
Address: ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………….. Post Code: ……………………….. Phone No.: ……………………………………… Date of Birth: ……………………………… e-Mail Address: ………………………………………………………………. Signature: ……………………………………………………………………
CARER/PARTNER MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
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Date of Amputation: ………………………… Are you a Diabetic: …………….. Cause of Amputation: ……………………………………………………………… TYPE OF AMPUTATION: Please circle the applicable items below LEG: Left / Right Above knee / Below knee ARM: Left / Right Above elbow / Below elbow I do not wish to become a member at this time but would like some further information
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Do you wish to order Name Tags: $10.00 each* * Preferred name for Name Tag: (1) ……………………………………………… (2) ………………………………………………
Return form to: The Secretary Amputee Support Association Sunshine Coast Inc. P.O. Box 1374 BUDERIM QLD 4556 |
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION REQUIRED
MEMBER’S NAME: …………………………………………………………
In Case of Emergency contact:
Not living with you, if possible
(1) Name ………………………………………………………………..
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Business: ………………………………….
Mobile: ……………………………………
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Telephone No. Home: ……………………………………..
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If this is being managed by medication please list:
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