Ray Tegerstrand's
Prosthetics & Orthotics
2445 Athens Avenue
Redding, CA 96001
(530) 241-4040
Testimonials
A triathlon is a demanding three-part test of conditioning and stamina that attracts a very small cadre of dedicated athletes. Imagine consecutively bicycling 25 miles, swimming a full mile, then running 6.2 miles. Now imagine doing that on a prosthetic limb...an above-knee prosthetic limb!
That's what David McGranahan does several times a year. Though he's been competing in Olympic distance triathlons for only four years, the 35-year-old bank vice president in October 2005 won the International Triathlon Union's Challenged Athlete Division World Championship in Hawaii, a grueling event whose bicycle segment includes scaling the Diamond Head volcano at Waikiki. The spark that led the once-average amputee of 17 years to become a world-class parathlete was a 2001 amputee fitness seminar at which he learned to run leg over leg, as opposed to the step-hop-step pattern so common among transfemoral amputees. Thus inspired,
he began training, strengthening his residual limb and building endurance. He also swapped his general-purpose prosthetic leg for a high-tech system featuring a Flex-Foot Reflex high intensity foot. Bionix HP hydraulic single-axis knee, and a new knee extension-assist device called the Quad Control Band.
David McGranahan now serves as an inspiration to other amputees, showing that great things are still possible with an above-knee limb deficiency.
