Jumping to the best solution with Jon-Allan Butterworth!

Ian Jones, prosthetist for Limb Solutions, has been out in Austria to support Jon-Allan Butterworth as he competes in Channel 4's 'The Jump' by creating custom prostheses to make sure Jon-Allan can perform at his best in each of the winter sports events.

Ian has kindly written an article for us about what he has been up to:

In November 2014  I took a call from a military veteran who was going to take part in Channel 4’s celebrity winter sports programme The Jump 2015. Jon-Allan Butterworth, world champion and Paralympic silver medallist in cycling had signed up to take part in this programme where so many got injured last year.

Having had recent surgery, he needed his sports arm remaking and new terminal devices (a special attachment to go into the end of a prosthetic arm) made for some of the activities. Having worked with Jon-Allan when he first lost his arm at Headley Court, Limb Solutions were happy to sponsor his socket and attachments.

Training began in December at Hemel’s Snow Centre. Jon-Allan came to our Hampshire clinic for casting and to bounce ideas around. At Bath University we looked at a bobsleigh where measures, profile and casts were taken to make the prototype attachments. The next visit to Bath trialled a prototype skeleton bob attachment checking angles and designs.

Over the next week the first bobsleigh attachment was made with help from a local company Metham Aviation Design. The final attachment was ready on Christmas Eve when I found out the bobsleigh in Austria were likely to be different from the ones seen in Bath!

I then decided to make up two different designs to give alternatives for my first trip to Innsbruck. By the time Jon-Allan was ready to fly to Austria, 4 attachments and the new arm were complete with a Spider-Man themed finish.

In Igls, Austria, it soon became apparent that the competition bobsleigh were very different in design, including a 2-handed brake. Fortunately with a large suitcase of tools and bits, I modified the hand brake using a shin tube section so Jon-Allan could operate it one-handed, which also came in useful for Lady Victoria Hervey who was nursing an injury and only had the use of one hand. We decided on the bottom left device, which with a minor adjustment fitted the push handle perfectly. With a little practice he was now able to push, jump in and lock on to the bob-sleigh with the side mounted carabiner. Assessed as being safe, he made his first run in the 2-man bob and all worked absolutely as planned.

I returned back to Innsbruck to further modify the arm and get both his attachments ready for competition. For the actual event, Jon set a blistering skeleton bob time, but none of the competitors would know the results until 1^st February when the live show was broadcast. Next came the bob event, and again he put up a really good run with the new arm working perfectly. I even managed to perform an emergency socket swap to enable Heather Mills to use her blade leg for the bob event.

Working together, we had achieved two world firsts and two unofficial world records. THE FIRST TRANSHUMERAL AMPUTEE RUN THE SKELETON, AND TO RUN THE 2 MAN BOBSLEIGH.

On Sunday 1^st February Jon-Allan managed to beat his fellow celebrities on the skeleton to avoid 'The Jump' and went on to set the fastest time down the run and at the time of writing was progressing to day 5 which would feature the pre-recorded bobsleigh event.

Once The Jump has finished, work will then start for Jon-Allan on his long road to th 2016 Rio Paralympics, where we hope to continue our support, and undoubtedly will be looking at more custom made devices for his cycling events. For more information follow us on twitter @LimbSolutionsL, Facebook or visit www.limbsolutions.co.uk