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Limb Loss Awareness Month 2025

Colorado State University: MediFlex Prosthetics LLC

 

CSU MediFlex Prosthetics team

 

Here we are again for the month of April and bringing awareness to the Limb Loss/Limb Difference community.

Every year, in the month of April, I shift gears on my podcast and create a theme centered on the amputee community and interview people versus talking from my personal experience.

Each year I have met some amazing people from doctors, to athletes, to innovators and entrepreneurs. This year I am excited to announce the future of our community, students!

Each of the 5 weeks of April I have students, of varying levels of their education, from all across our nation, talking about what they are studying, inventing, building, and perfecting in the prosthetic world. We have undergraduates to PhD students, all of whom are spending their college careers, and life after, making our community a better place by creating the next generation of products meant to allow us to live fuller lives as amputees.

 

Today, I am excited to introduce Garrison Hayes and Eric Gutierrez-Camacho, two of the five student team from Colorado State University, they are the founders of MediFlex Prosthetics LLC and their creation is part of their senior project at CSU.

                 

 

The work they do focuses primarily around 3D printed feet modules for amputees, both above knee and below knee. Their idea, which I will allow them to explain, is a tough, indestructible foot that allows for more energy return to the user.

This could be life changing, not to mention energy saving!

So many of us already struggle with moving around for long periods of time due to fit or phantom pains, but we also deal with exhaustion due to a loss of energy as our foot hits the ground, giving nothing back.

 

Internal carbon fiber skeleton of foot

 

3D printed foot shell that is built in sections for ease of replacing portion that might wear down over time

 

 

Garrison, a lead in the creation of this foot, is also an amputee. He has been able to trial each prototype and give instant feedback from an amputee’s true perspective. A vital component when making a new prosthesis before marketing it.

This team of students has created an LLC to continue building, bettering, and supplying this type of equipment to our amputee community well after their college careers end. Their goal is to make their product quick to get and affordable for everyone.

                               

As they formulated their ideas and worked around getting large 3D printers to create such strong feet with high quality materials they have also been competing in this field with their product and I am excited to say that this past weekend they received an overall 1st place finish at the Murals competition at CSU for their product The Goldilocks Foot.

Way to go,Team!!

 

These students are just one example of the intensely competitive world of biomedical and medical engineering that can be found in our universities around the nation. Each team, each level, building off of other projects, creating all new ideas, and researching the field of prosthesis and a deeper level, all in all, working towards making the life of an amputee as comfortable, balanced, and natural as they once were with the part they are missing.

This month, I want you to make sure to like, share and subscribe to my podcast as we go deeper into the world of engineering for the amputee community and what these inspiring students are bringing to the table.

If you would like to watch the whole interview it can be found on my YouTube channel

The future is NOW!

To find out more about Garrison and Eric’s prosthesis and the work their team is doing by visiting their Video HERE 

You can also ask for more information or ask questions that you may have for their team at: mediflex.co/outlook.com

They are also seeking testers that live near them or can travel, so if you would like to be on the cutting edge of this technology please scan the QR code below and fill out their form to join their testing program.

 

 

Thank you again, Garrison and Eric for reaching out and allowing me an hour of your day. As an amputee, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for caring, creating, and dreaming about a better future for all of us. You are all so inspiring! Keep doing what you’re doing and let’s chat again as you continue to grow and enhance your product.

I hope you all enjoyed hearing, first hand, what our college students are inspiring to do for the greater good of the amputee community.

Continue to listen in this week as I bring on students from east coast to west coast and undergraduates to PhD students. Their stories are inspiring and their drive to do good in our world needs to be shared. These students are our future, and the future is looking bright!

Have a beautifully blessed week!

And as always and until next time,

Be Healthy,

Be Happy,

Be YOU!!

 

Much love,