Crutch Design Endorsements

     Dr. Richard M. Hemphill of Ellicott City, Maryland, doesn't plan to slow down anytime soon. While Dr. Hemphill used a prosthesis ten years, for the past five years he has used crutches exclusively. In 1994 he went to Reno to get a pair of SCBU crutches. He describes the HOPE Crutch as "The best crutch I've ever had. I've used them to walk three to five miles a day with my wife. They are more stable and provide better balance because the upright nature allows for better tip/surface contact. This is very important on wet or slippery surfaces. And I ought to know, having broken my ribs on two different occasions in my early days of crutch use. With the HOPE Crutch, I no longer have arm dislocation problems and I'm not wearing out clothes and coats like I did in the past. I think people will benefit from what CareBorne has done."

     Don Warner, a 6 foot, 5 inch, amputee in Eugene, Oregon, first discovered the SCBU crutch at Oregon State University, where he served on the Board of Directors. Don said, "The HOPE Crutch is fantastic! It provides much better support and balance with no underarm irritation."

     In September of 1994, Marsha Strickland of Sulphur, Louisiana, lost her leg in a motorcycle accident. A little over a year later, in December of 1995, she received a pair of SCBU crutches. Marsha says the recuperating months between amputation and being able to use a prosthesis are the most difficult. Marsha tells of the frustration she and other amputees encounter when trying to explain to their medical professionals the pain and suffering they endure with regular crutches during the recuperative period. They feel their doctors aren't hearing them because there is little comfort in the stock answers, "Crutches are difficult to use. You'll have to tough it out. There is no alternative." Marsha states, "Now there is an alternative! I have fallen and slipped with the regular crutches. They are dangerous. Ever since I have had the HOPE Crutch, I have not fallen or slipped. I'm also surprised by the speed in which I can move with the crutches. Freedom and security are what they give me. They have helped my quality of life."

     Many amputees interviewed, such as Jack Wagner, an accountant in Champaign, Illinois, credit the SCBU for making a big improvement in balance, as well as providing a much smoother transition from one step to the next.

Excerpt from:
Reno Gazette Journal - September 20, 1998
Reno entrepreneur making a better crutch
By Scott Sonner ASSOCIATED PRESS

   Bill Dickerson insists he's not in it for the money. He just wants to offer a helping hand -- or in this case, a better crutch.
   "With all the advances and technology, no one had really improved the crutch," said Dickerson, president of CareBorne Inc., a research, design and engineering company based in Reno.
   "It really hadn't changed since the Middle Ages. Even on the Egyptian pyramids, there are pictures of people leaning on sticks," he said.
   Some of his biggest fans so far are the elderly, who fear the instability of traditional crutches, and big-time athletes, who are too tall or weigh too much for the typical crutch.
   Athletic trainers in the NFL, NBA and 100 collegiate teams across the country are especially fond of one version with a stabilizer bar behind the shoulder and a whole new curvy design.
   Dickerson, until recently a successful businessman in the commercial printing industry, said his only personal experience with crutches was a bad one.
   They slipped. They rubbed under his arms. They wore him out after just a half-block of walking. He suspected others suffered as well.
   "We surveyed 300 physical therapists and 140 nurses and found no one was really pleased with the crutch," he said.
   "The reason we did this was there was a need."
   Dickerson said major medical suppliers hadn't invested much time in such research because there wasn't any money to be made.
   "A crutch is a crutch is a crutch. It's not a big part of their business,'' he said.
   He said he had a leg up in his own research thanks to his old doctor buddies at the Rotary Club in Warsaw, Ind., "the orthopedic capital of the world."
   With their encouragement, he started studying the crutch, watching hour after hour of slow motion videotapes. What he found was a tool that bred instability and inefficiency because of the way the crutch is designed to be used -- with elbows bent and the tips pointed slightly away from the body.
   "It's simply basic physics," he said. "You use about 78 percent more energy than a regular walk."
   The result over the past three years has been the invention of two new crutch types:
   The Stabilizer crutch, with a stabilizing bar raising up in the back to form an "L" in the top where the traditional crutch was flat
   The Hope crutch, a single pole with a bent "U" and ergonomically designed hand grips for big hands that won't fit in a traditional crutch
   "That's the big crooked one," said Jeff Monroe, head football trainer at Michigan State University.
   MSU started ordering the crutches four or five years ago. Traditional crutches just aren't big enough for today's modern athletes, he said.
   "These kids are routinely 300 pounds, 6-foot-6. If they get a knee injury they may have to be on crutches for six weeks," he said.
   The high piece on the back of the crutch is safer and more comfortable, Monroe said from East Lansing, Mich.
   "You have to remember, in my population of student athletes 18 to 22 years old, they are pretty aggressive, active people. They don't like to do things carefully," he said.
   "If I try to teach them to walk on crutches, they can take like a three-minute lecture, and then they are ready to go," he said.
   The University of Nevada-Reno were among the early guinea pigs for the new crutches.
   During early experiments, Dickerson said he would challenge athletes at the school track to a race -- he with the new crutches and they with the traditional ones.
   "I found I could race young athletes on crutches, and a 50-year-old man could beat them," he said.
   Even the state attorney general is a fan.
   "I think he's really got something," Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa said in a recent interview.
   Del Papa tried them out after she broke her leg roller skating.
   "I tried the regular crutches with the flat top but these are much more comfortable," she said.
   "Now I go up to people in airports and ask how long they are going to be on crutches. I tell them if it is long, it is really worthwhile to get a pair of these crutches."

• less metabolic energy is required because the crutch isn't held in by the arms. By stabilizing the crutch behind the user, forces applied to the crutch assist or complement the forward motion.
• using a six inch longer lever, the length of each stride is increased two to three inches. Previous gait analyses show ambulation on axillary crutches is customarily at 50% of the speed of a slow walk. CareBorne research has shown that 80% of the speed of a slow walk is the norm when the crutch is stabilized behind the shoulders. This is possible because of the increase in length of stride, overall smoothness of gait, and the use of only the larger muscles.
• both the crutch and user are more upright; the person is able to stand more erect and not lean forward. This more vertical position allows a greater percentage of the crutch tip to make contact with the floor or ground, providing increased stability as well as smoother transition from step to step.

Prices: amputees receive priority in orders the HOPE Crutch  or the Stabilizer. To order click here.