The Amputee Coalition of America (ACA) recognized the 2006 Ernest M. Burgess Award and Awards of Excellence winners on Friday, June 16, at a special ceremony during the ACA Annual Educational Conference & Exposition held at the Sheraton Bloomington Hotel in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

The Ernest M. Burgess Award was given to Douglas G. Smith, MD, acknowledging his motivation, spirit and dedication to improving the lives of people with limb loss. This award was presented by renowned physical therapist Robert Gailey, PhD, a close friend of Dr. Smith.

The award is named after Dr. Ernest Martin Burgess, an orthopaedic surgeon and former professor who died in 2000. During World War II, Dr. Burgess, then an Army surgeon, was inspired to develop better amputation techniques and prosthetic devices. He also established the Prosthetics Research Study (PRS) in Seattle, Washington, in 1964 through funding from the U.S. Veterans Administration. Burgess later dedicated his life to providing mobility to lower-limb amputees all over the world by founding the Prosthetics Outreach Foundation. 

In closing his acceptance speech, Dr. Smith stated, “Continue to set goals, to work very hard, and to be enthusiastic about your own rehabilitation, about those around you, and about what you have to offer to other people. I really have come to believe that the purpose of life is to create enthusiasm and make life better.”

In 1989, Smith completed a fellowship in Foot, Ankle and Amputation Surgery under the direction of the late Dr. Burgess. Dr. Smith has served as ACA’s medical director since 2001 and is currently an associate professor of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Washington and the director of the Prosthetics Research Study. 

Joseph Czerniecki, MD, director of rehabilitation medicine at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System, received the Professional Achievement of the Year Award. This award is given each year to a professional whose work has had a great impact on the health and lifestyle of amputees.

Since 1986, Dr. Czerniecki has treated approximately 2,000 amputees from World War II through the current Iraq war and has trained more than 100 rehabilitation specialists. His research, funded continuously over the past 12 years by the VA, has focused on injuries and degenerative conditions of the feet, including the effects of stroke and nervous system disorders, and the postoperative management of transtibial amputees.

Catherine Hathaway, a bilateral below-knee amputee and an ACA-certified peer visitor, received the Volunteer of the Year Award. This award is given each year to a person who has given an outstanding contribution of time and talent to the amputee community. 

Hathaway established the Humpty Dumpty Amputee Society, the first amputee support group in southwest Louisiana and today the only amputee support group in the state. With the aid of a motorized wheelchair and a crew of her support group members, Hathaway rescued hundreds of people after Hurricane Katrina. They went city to city checking hospital emergency rooms, identified and documented patient needs, and tracked survivors as they were transported west and north. 

Jean Boelter received the Role Model of the Year Award. This award is given each year to a person who exemplifies living life to the fullest with a disability. 

Boelter a below-knee amputee since the age of 5, is a strong role model in the Harborview Amputee Support Group, is an ACA-certified peer visitor, and has assisted the ACA by facilitating the PALS (Promoting Amputee Life Skills) project. She authored guidelines for peer visitation to new amputees and helped develop a nationwide network of support groups for amputees through the Telephone Pioneers of America, a philanthropic group of telephone company employees. 

In accepting her award at the ACA Conference, Boelter told the story of receiving her first prosthetic leg in the mail when she was a child.

“My father said, ‘I’ve got something for you today,’” she recalled. “He put the leg on me, and I said, ‘Dad, there is no way I can walk on this,’ and he said, ‘I’ll hold your hand.’ … I’m hoping that we can all reach out to other people.”