10
July
2015
|
06:00 AM
America/Chicago

Seth Alexander - new legs, new lease on life

For years, Seth Alexander of Schell City has maintained an interest in a variety of sports. But that athletic hobby became more difficult when he lost both legs as a result of a vehicle accident in 2011, when he was 16 years old.

After the one-vehicle accident at 5:43 p.m. on Nov. 2, 2011, Alexander, who turned 20 years old Thursday, says he went through about 13 surgeries in an attempt to repair his legs at hospitals in Joplin and St. Louis. But finally, the doctors told his parents that their options were to continue with surgeries in order to try to salvage his legs or amputate them above the knee.

His parents left that decision to Alexander, and he decided to have the doctors amputate his legs, which they did on Nov. 21, leaving him a bilateral, above-knee amputee.

Alexander got his first set of prosthetic limbs in Feb. 2012. He then spent time at Children's Mercy in Kansas City for rehabilitation and then a few months at Industrial Physical Therapy in Nevada to get accustomed to the new limbs.

Read more via Nevada Daily Mail