[tt] [silk] So Long, And Thanks For All The Fins

[Eugen Leitl]

----- Forwarded message from Udhay Shankar N <udhay at pobox.com> -----

From: Udhay Shankar N <udhay at pobox.com>
Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2007 17:01:11 +0530
To: silklist at lists.hserus.net
Subject: [silk] So Long, And Thanks For All The Fins
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Reply-To: silklist at lists.hserus.net

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/08/28/tailless.dolphin.ap/index.html?eref=rss_tech

New prosthetic may help dolphin, troops

    * Story Highlights
    * Prosthetic specialist developing new fin for injured dolphin
    * Winter lost her fin after getting tangled in a crab trap
    * She's the only dolphin known to have survived losing fin
    * Technology created for Winter also helped airman, who lost legs in Iraq

CLEARWATER, Florida (AP) -- Prosthetic specialist Kevin Carroll 
travels the country tackling the toughest human amputation cases, so 
it was only natural that he was also drawn to Winter -- the only 
known dolphin to survive the loss of her powerful tail flukes.

"My heart went out to her, and I was thinking I could probably put a 
tail on her," said Carroll, vice president of prosthetics at Hanger 
Orthopedic Group, Inc.

Recreating one of the most powerful swimming mechanisms in nature 
turned out to be a lot tougher than expected. But after months of 
experimenting, Carroll and a unique team of experts are well on their 
way to, as one of them puts it, "MacGyvering" a tail for Winter.

Unlike the 1980s cult TV hero "MacGyver," who worked his way out of 
tight spots with everyday items, much of what Winter's team is 
creating is first-of-its-kind stuff.

"We put together a team who doesn't know what 'no' means," said Mike 
Walsh, Winter's lead veterinarian and a program manager at the 
University of Florida's aquatic animal health program. "As long as 
you're willing to try, you can make a big difference."

Lessons can also be learned that will help human amputees. Carroll, 
for example, found the gel sleeve he developed to cling to 
18-month-old Winter's tail without irritating her sensitive skin also 
soothed a painful prosthesis for Air Force Senior Airman Brian 
Kolfage, who lost both legs and his right hand in a 2004 mortar 
attack in Iraq. The sleeve sticks to Winter's tail with suction the 
same way a rubber surgical glove grips a human hand.

"When he tried to walk with prosthetics, you had these dagger-like 
boney growths sticking into the socket. It was very painful," Carroll 
said. "Brian's situation was similar to Winter's. Winter helped him 
and hopefully she'll help a lot of others as well."

Carroll, an Orlando resident whose company is based in Bethesda, 
Maryland, said he is already thinking of new materials to make human 
prosthetics tougher in saltwater. And Walsh said the research on 
Winter is invaluable for understanding dolphin physiology and the 
treatment of back injuries, which can occur when dolphins are beached.

Winter lives at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, a nonprofit marine 
animal rescue center and popular local attraction located in the Gulf 
Coast city's former water treatment plant.

She was a frail, dehydrated 3-month-old when she came to the hospital 
in December 2005. A fisherman found her tangled in the buoy line of a 
crab trap in Indian River Lagoon near Cape Canaveral. The line cut 
off the blood supply to her tail and it slowly fell off like shreds 
of paper as the aquarium team worked to save her life.

Winter learned how to swim without her tail, which is used for 
propulsion -- amazing her handlers with a unique combination of moves 
that resemble an alligator's undulating swimming style and a shark's 
side-to-side tail swipes. Winter uses her flippers, normally employed 
for steering and braking, to get moving.

But her unique swimming style is sure to lead to spinal problems. She 
already sometimes bends her spine in an unnatural curve. Trainers 
work with Winter, now 6-feet-long and a healthy 180 pounds on an 
extensive physical therapy regimen, bending the tail up and down, to 
keep the right muscles strong.

Walsh said allowing Winter to work out daily with a prosthetic tail 
may keep her from deteriorating. It is unlikely she will wear the 
tail full-time.

It's uncharted territory. Fuji, an elderly dolphin that lives at an 
aquarium in Japan, has a prosthesis, but it is attached to the 
remaining part of his tail. Both of Winter's tail flukes and 
peduncle, a wrist-like joint that allows a dolphin tail to move up 
and down, were lost.

Winter's team also has to figure out how to keep the prosthesis from 
sliding off as the tail creates enough force to propel a 400-pound 
dolphin out of the water and 10 feet into the air.

"Every step we take is unknown," Clearwater Marine Aquarium CEO David 
Yates said. "Another group came to us, analyzed her and said ... they 
didn't know how to make the tail stay on. But Kevin came to us and 
said we've got the technology. We can do this."

Carroll, who like the others on Winter's team volunteers his time and 
resources, began by brainstorming elaborate vacuum attachments, but 
eventually settled on the simple silicone gel sleeve.

Handlers slide the sleeve over Winter's stump and move her tail in up 
and down motions, teaching her how to swim like a normal dolphin when 
the prosthesis is attached.

It is a slow process. They don't want Winter to balk at the strange 
new attachment.

"I thought I could go down, cast her (tail stump) and put the tail on 
her," Carroll said. "I didn't understand the training that had to go 
with each fitting of the tail. Working with Winter, we're on her 
time, not my time. If she's ready to do something, we move forward. 
It's the same way working with a child. It takes a lot of time."

The team plans to keep socializing Winter with new pieces until, at a 
point yet to be determined, they will attach the first artificial 
tail flukes. They plan to start out with small flukes that create a 
little resistance.

"She is the perfect dolphin for what she has to do," Yates said, 
watching Winter toy with a herring in her tank. "A lot of dolphins 
might reject this up front. But every step of the way she has 
excelled in everything we have asked her to do."

One day soon, Winter's new prosthetic should have her keeping pace 
with the aquarium's two rambunctious male dolphins, Nicholas and 
Indy. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend


-- 
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))


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