inMotion Magazine

January | February 2019 42 Al Pike, CP, passed away June 14, 2018 due to leukemia. Most people knew that Al was a prosthetist who retired after a long career of service to the Veterans Administration and the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command to pursue his love of aviation and photography. What many people don’t know is the role that Al played in the early development of the Amputee Coalition. I first met Al when he was a student in prosthetics at Northwestern University around 1969. I was a patient model for students learning how to fit hip-level prostheses. Later, Al was employed by Otto Bock in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he managed professional relations, technical information and educational services. His work in the field of prosthetics and education was accompanied by a passion to help patients adjust to life without a limb. Consequently, Al spoke at VA rehabilitation programs, professional meetings and support groups alike. Because he knew that outcomes could be improved with information, he developed many videos with patients demonstrating improved gait and enhanced functional abilities using new technologies. We met again when Al invited me to be a patient model for a course on endoskeletal prostheses and speak to an amputee support group at a local hospital in Minnesota. During that meeting, we discussed our common mission: to ensure that people with limb loss could meet other patients (consumers) as part of the rehabilitation process to provide support, information and encouragement after losing a limb. Al always had a new project involving education. In the late 1980s he invited me to work on an exhibit with the Science Museum of Minnesota called “Bionics and Transplants.” Built into a human skeleton were titanium implants, joint replacements, an artificial heart, tooth implants, skin transfers for burn patients, an artificial eye, prosthetic devices and a myoelectric arm. It was the most complete exhibit on medical and surgical advances, implants and prosthetic technology ever developed for education of consumers and the public. The exhibit travelled across the country, stopping at seven cities over a period of three years. When it came to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, I enlisted medical, engineering, prosthetic, nursing and rehabilitation professionals and consumers to be present for the opening ceremony and future demonstrations. by Mary Novotny RN, MSN Perspectives AL PIKE: A Life WeLL-LiVed Al Pike on the wing of a T‑34B Beechcraft