Bionics Start at Great Plains Rehabilitation Services!
Posted on 1/13/2010
Steve Herman tosses the honorary tip off basketball at the University of Mary’s Men’s game, January 2, 2010. |
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Steve Herman’s bionic leg has been built and fitted by the team of Orthotists/Prosthetists at Great Plains Rehabilitation Services, a division of St. Alexius Medical Center. The GPRS clinicians involved in Steve’s care include Peter Davidson CPO RN, Eric Lieux CPO & Eric Kilzer CO.
Great Plains Rehabilitation Services is the leader in prosthetics technology and is introducing more bionic prosthetics than any other facility in the region. Steve is also receiving state-of-the-art physical therapy and training at the St. Alexius Human Performance Center. St. Alexius is the area leader with prosthetic manufacturing/fitting expertise (Great Plains Rehabilitation Services) and state of the art training & rehabilitation expertise and facilities (Human Performance Center).
(The following is a story by Cindy Peterson, Bismarck Tribune)
Herman & Meyer: An uncommon bond
When people meet Don Meyer for the first time, they probably like to discuss basketball with him. Meyer is the head coach for the Northern State men’s basketball team. He’s the all-time winningest coach in NCAA history with over 900 victories. When Steve Herman of Bismarck met Meyer, his first question didn’t revolve around sports.
“Do you want to go shopping together for shoes?” Herman asked Meyer.
“What’s your shoe size?” Meyer asked.
“Ten and a half,” Herman said.
“I’m afraid not,” Meyer said.
Meyer and Herman share a common connection. They both have had a leg amputated, and Herman reached out to Meyer last summer after his right leg was amputated. Even though the pair had communicated, they had never met until this past weekend. Northern State was in Bismarck to take match up with the University of Mary on Saturday night.
They met before the women’s game at the McDowell Activity Center and shared in some good-natured bantering. Meyer presented Herman with a signed basketball, and Herman threw up the tipoff for the men’s game. Herman is a graduate of U-Mary.
Meyer inquired about why Herman’s right leg needed to be amputated above the knee.
“Motorcycle accident,” Herman said.
“That’s pretty stupid,” Meyer said jokingly.
“It’s no more stupid than nodding off,” Herman teased back in reference to Meyer’s accident.
Herman was participating in a fundraiser for Bismarck State last summer when he got in a motorcycle accident near Mobridge, S.D. He spent three months in a St. Paul hospital and underwent 15 surgeries and skin grafts. Herman became the first person in the Midwest to be fitted with a RHEO 2 KNEE that features Ossur’s bionic technology and includes Bluetooth communication capability. Meyer was injured in a car accident prior to the 2008-09 season when the vehicle he was driving crossed the center line on Highway 20 near Chelsea, S.D. His vehicle struck a semi-tractor trailer. Meyer was hospitalized for two months. During that time, he lost part of his left leg, and it was discovered that he had cancer. He returned to coach the Wolves, set the NCAA mark for coaching wins and received the Jimmy V. Award for Perseverance at the 2009 ESPY Awards. Meyer walks with a cane.
A friend of Herman’s, who was visiting Herman in St. Paul, saw the ESPY Awards in his hotel room and made contact with one of Meyer’s assistants. That was how Herman and Meyer’s friendship began.
“Through the grace of God we have come together under similar circumstances,” Herman said. “This is a chance to do good for other people.”
“That’s the way I look at it,” Meyer said. “You can reach people you have never reached before. “Where you start out and where you end up is amazing,” Meyer added. “So much of it is your mental approach.”
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