http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/08/28/tailless.dolphin.ap/index.html?eref=rss_tech
New prosthetic may help dolphin, troops
* Story Highlights
* Prosthetic specialist developing new fin for injured dolphin
* Winter lost her fin after getting tangled in a crab trap
* She's the only dolphin known to have survived losing fin
* Technology created for Winter also helped airman, who lost legs in Iraq
CLEARWATER, Florida (AP) -- Prosthetic specialist Kevin Carroll
travels the country tackling the toughest human amputation cases, so
it was only natural that he was also drawn to Winter -- the only
known dolphin to survive the loss of her powerful tail flukes.
"My heart went out to her, and I was thinking I could probably put a
tail on her," said Carroll, vice president of prosthetics at Hanger
Orthopedic Group, Inc.
Recreating one of the most powerful swimming mechanisms in nature
turned out to be a lot tougher than expected. But after months of
experimenting, Carroll and a unique team of experts are well on their
way to, as one of them puts it, "MacGyvering" a tail for Winter.
Unlike the 1980s cult TV hero "MacGyver," who worked his way out of
tight spots with everyday items, much of what Winter's team is
creating is first-of-its-kind stuff.
"We put together a team who doesn't know what 'no' means," said Mike
Walsh, Winter's lead veterinarian and a program manager at the
University of Florida's aquatic animal health program. "As long as
you're willing to try, you can make a big difference."
Lessons can also be learned that will help human amputees. Carroll,
for example, found the gel sleeve he developed to cling to
18-month-old Winter's tail without irritating her sensitive skin also
soothed a painful prosthesis for Air Force Senior Airman Brian
Kolfage, who lost both legs and his right hand in a 2004 mortar
attack in Iraq. The sleeve sticks to Winter's tail with suction the
same way a rubber surgical glove grips a human hand.
"When he tried to walk with prosthetics, you had these dagger-like
boney growths sticking into the socket. It was very painful," Carroll
said. "Brian's situation was similar to Winter's. Winter helped him
and hopefully she'll help a lot of others as well."
Carroll, an Orlando resident whose company is based in Bethesda,
Maryland, said he is already thinking of new materials to make human
prosthetics tougher in saltwater. And Walsh said the research on
Winter is invaluable for understanding dolphin physiology and the
treatment of back injuries, which can occur when dolphins are beached.
Winter lives at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, a nonprofit marine
animal rescue center and popular local attraction located in the Gulf
Coast city's former water treatment plant.
She was a frail, dehydrated 3-month-old when she came to the hospital
in December 2005. A fisherman found her tangled in the buoy line of a
crab trap in Indian River Lagoon near Cape Canaveral. The line cut
off the blood supply to her tail and it slowly fell off like shreds
of paper as the aquarium team worked to save her life.
Winter learned how to swim without her tail, which is used for
propulsion -- amazing her handlers with a unique combination of moves
that resemble an alligator's undulating swimming style and a shark's
side-to-side tail swipes. Winter uses her flippers, normally employed
for steering and braking, to get moving.
But her unique swimming style is sure to lead to spinal problems. She
already sometimes bends her spine in an unnatural curve. Trainers
work with Winter, now 6-feet-long and a healthy 180 pounds on an
extensive physical therapy regimen, bending the tail up and down, to
keep the right muscles strong.
Walsh said allowing Winter to work out daily with a prosthetic tail
may keep her from deteriorating. It is unlikely she will wear the
tail full-time.
It's uncharted territory. Fuji, an elderly dolphin that lives at an
aquarium in Japan, has a prosthesis, but it is attached to the
remaining part of his tail. Both of Winter's tail flukes and
peduncle, a wrist-like joint that allows a dolphin tail to move up
and down, were lost.
Winter's team also has to figure out how to keep the prosthesis from
sliding off as the tail creates enough force to propel a 400-pound
dolphin out of the water and 10 feet into the air.
"Every step we take is unknown," Clearwater Marine Aquarium CEO David
Yates said. "Another group came to us, analyzed her and said ... they
didn't know how to make the tail stay on. But Kevin came to us and
said we've got the technology. We can do this."
Carroll, who like the others on Winter's team volunteers his time and
resources, began by brainstorming elaborate vacuum attachments, but
eventually settled on the simple silicone gel sleeve.
Handlers slide the sleeve over Winter's stump and move her tail in up
and down motions, teaching her how to swim like a normal dolphin when
the prosthesis is attached.
It is a slow process. They don't want Winter to balk at the strange
new attachment.
"I thought I could go down, cast her (tail stump) and put the tail on
her," Carroll said. "I didn't understand the training that had to go
with each fitting of the tail. Working with Winter, we're on her
time, not my time. If she's ready to do something, we move forward.
It's the same way working with a child. It takes a lot of time."
The team plans to keep socializing Winter with new pieces until, at a
point yet to be determined, they will attach the first artificial
tail flukes. They plan to start out with small flukes that create a
little resistance.
"She is the perfect dolphin for what she has to do," Yates said,
watching Winter toy with a herring in her tank. "A lot of dolphins
might reject this up front. But every step of the way she has
excelled in everything we have asked her to do."
One day soon, Winter's new prosthetic should have her keeping pace
with the aquarium's two rambunctious male dolphins, Nicholas and
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