WWII veteran is old school when it comes to his prosthetics
IN MY SHOES: Whenever Silver Spring freelance writer Marilyn Fenichel sees double amputees from area military hospitals walking around her neighborhood, she always thinks of her father, 86-year-old Richard Fenichel,who lost his legs below the knee at the age of 19 when he developed gangrene after tramping around in the snow for several weeks in Germany’s Hurtgen Forest during WWII:
Dad’s rehabilitation took place in the Veterans Administration hospital in Atlantic City, in a ward with three other amputees. Back then, artificial legs were made of wood, leather and steel. Dad’s bulky prostheses were so heavy that the first time he tried to walk, even holding onto wooden parallel rails, he almost passed out from the effort. It took months for the remaining muscles of his thighs to become strong enough to bear the weight. Slowly he learned to walk again, practicing on the long corridors of the hospital and on the seaside boardwalk. …
By the mid-1960s, sleeker, lighter legs were available, and Dad’s prosthetist encouraged him to try an updated pair. I remember watching him practice. Perhaps distracted by other obligations, he didn’t have the same motivation he once had. Perhaps his wooden legs had become so much a part of him that he couldn’t give them up. Whatever the reason, he continues to wear the clunky legs he learned to use in the 1940s.
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