Life doesn't end when you lose a limb.

In some ways, Dwight McKay and James Yohn say, their lives got richer, because they are reaping rewards from helping other amputees.

McKay, 64, of Lititz, and Yohn, 65, of Manheim, are peer visitors and members of the Amputee Support Team of Lancaster.

There are currently 15 county peer visitors who have been certified by the nonprofit Amputee Coalition of America, which tallies more than 1.7 million people living with limb loss in the United States.

The coalition has recruited and trained peer visitors since 2001, and there are now more than 1,000 nationwide, according to Charlene Whelan, National Peer Network team leader and health educator at the Knoxville, Tenn.-based coalition. Included in the network are family members and military amputee visitors.

"(Amputation) is a traumatic experience for individuals, a life-altering event," she says. "They are facing a dark unknown, and this generates a tremendous amount of anxiety.

"Without a role model, they may be short on hope."

To be trained as a peer visitor, amputees must have demonstrated a good recovery and familiarity with coalition resources, she says.

Yohn and McKay helped spearhead the local AST support group in 2006, as a spin-off chapter of the Amputee Support Team of Central Pennsylvania, in Mechanicsburg.

The Lancaster group, one of 300 listed by the coalition, meets monthly, with anywhere from 18 to almost 50 participants.

Sometimes recent or prospective amputees deny they need help or are embarrassed, Yohn says. But generally, contact with someone who has been there makes a profound difference.

"There's a special bond there," Yohn says. "We can reach other amputees in a way no one else can."

***

James Yohn had a decision to make.

He could either stay in a wheelchair or get an amputation.

He chose the latter.

Yohn, who suffered from Charcot foot, a condition in which the joints and soft tissue are destroyed, had a below-the-knee amputation of his left leg in 2004 in Michigan.

He was able to make the decision and move forward with the help of an ACA peer visitor and a support group.

"They were all very positive, and I addressed it very positively," says Yohn, who is retired but still does consulting work. He now wears a prosthesis.

McKay, a contract security manager at a pharmaceutical plant, had a rocky road to amputation.

It all started with what he thought was a muscle cramp in his right leg.

But an ultrasound revealed a massive aneurysm. Blood had stopped moving properly inside his leg.

At first, doctors tried a bypass, but the pain returned, and a series of operations also proved unsuccessful.

In 2005, McKay's leg was amputated. In 2006, he was fitted with a prosthesis.

"I didn't have an official peer visit, but while I was in the hospital, I had a good conversation with a fellow patient and amputee," he says.

"Without his ever knowing, (he) has been an inspiration to me to become a peer visitor and to use the dynamics of the support group to make sure that as much good information as possible gets to new and prospective amputees."

***

The ACA estimates that 200,000 people undergo amputations annually. Each year, the numbers keep growing, Whelan says.
About 50 percent of the amputations performed by vascular surgeon Dr. Thomas O'Connor, Keyser O'Connor Surgical Associates, which has offices in Ephrata and Lancaster, are related to complications from diabetes, he says.

Amputations may also be necessary in cases of infection, trauma and tumors.

"The key to my approach is to make sure the patients know we did everything we could to save the (limb), and we've left no stone unturned," he says.

Recovery from an amputation is a process, he says.

"They are still going to have a life — it's just going to be a different life."

Yohn and McKay say a common thread among amputees is the question, "Why me?"

New amputees face a number of challenges, including phantom pain; mobility and accessibility problems; altered body image and sexuality/relationship issues; and depression.

In fact, according to Yohn and McKay, there are six phases of recovery after amputation:

Enduring. Suffering. Reckoning. Reconciling. Normalizing.

And finally, thriving.

"That's where we want everyone to be," McKay says. "That's the ultimate goal."

AMPUTEE SUPPORT
WHAT:

Amputee Support Team of Lancaster
WHEN: Meetings are held 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. the last Thursday of every month.
WHERE: Lancaster General Health Campus, 2100 Harrisburg Pike
CONTACT: Jim Yohn, 665-0139, 283-6664 or jjyohn@dejazzd.com
PEER VISITATION: Contact the Amputee Coalition of America, (888) 267-5669 or www.amputee-coalition.org.

CONTACT THE NEW ERA: sjurgelski@LNPnews.com or 291-8756