July 3, 2008

• Orthopedic group fashion prosthetic for Chihuahua,

  Karen Sideler, Wichita Eagle

  Little Josie is on a roll. The tiny Chihuahua scoots along on two back legs and the model airplane wheels that have taken the place of her missing front legs, her tail in nonstop motion as she sniffs toes and snarfs treats.

  She’s Jill Schuldt’s dog, but she’s also the mascot and special project at Hanger Orthopedic Group, a prosthetics and orthotics business at Central and Hillside.

  Schuldt is office administrator there, and her colleagues fashioned the contraption that has made Josie the office — and client — favorite.

  Josie was one of four puppies with problems in a litter of five born earlier this year in Wichita. Two others are missing front legs; one has three legs. The fifth is normal.

  Schuldt’s family adopted animals of all sorts while she was growing up, so when she saw a TV report about the puppies, she applied to adopt one. Her sister owns Josie’s three-legged sibling. They were among more than 450 people willing to take the dogs in.

  At night, Josie goes home with Schuldt, but during the day she belongs to everyone, from the office staff who give her treats to the clients who scratch her ears.

  When Josie stands on her back legs to investigate what’s going on above her level, she looks like a tiny kangaroo. From the beginning, she would scoot along on her chest, propelled by her legs. But that rubs the hair off her chest.

  Mike Lukens, a certified prosthetist, and Dennis Byers, senior technician, designed and built her wheeled prosthesis.

  “There’s no standard plan with this” as there is for humans, Lukens said. “Well, actually, we did it similar — took a cast, made a mold.”

  And used a lot of trial and error.

  They turned to Hangar Hobbies, which sells remote-controlled model airplanes, for Josie’s lightweight wheels.

  Where to put them took more experimentation: Too close together, Josie tipped over. Too low, her back bent unnaturally. Too far forward, they put pressure on her back. And too far back, she regularly fell on her nose.

  They’re making a new bubblegum-pink prosthesis –”she’s a girl,” Lukens said. The part that cradles her body will extend farther toward her back legs, to take more pressure off her back.

  How much does a doggie prosthesis cost when it’s not made for the office mascot?

  “Thousands of dollars,” Lukens said, then laughed. “I don’t know. I don’t have a clue.

  “But it takes a fair amount of time.”

  As with humans, there are molds, fittings, adjustments and modifications. “It’s also a job where you develop a relationship with the person you’re fitting,” Lukens said.

  The difference with Josie: She can’t say, “This hurts,” or “This works.”

  She seems to like the prosthesis, yapping and growling when it’s removed. “She gets pretty temperamental,” Lukens said.

  Lenora Schuldt, Jill Schuldt’s mother and area office manager for Hanger, said Josie took to the prosthesis quickly. “Once food was put in front of her, it was just like that,” she said, snapping her fingers.

  Josie’s had the prosthesis about three weeks and already knows that tile floors are slick and that sidewalk and driveway cracks should be approached at an angle, to present less challenge.

  Josie can’t get into her bed with her wheels on, and as a growing puppy — she’s about 4 months old — she still spends much of her day there.

  Schuldt doesn’t think she’ll get a lot bigger. The prosthesis is made in layers, so it can be adjusted as she fills out.

  Prosthesis devices for dogs aren’t unheard of, but Josie’s is only Hanger’s second — several years ago, Lukens said, the business fashioned a carbon fiber leg for a lab who’d lost one to cancer.

  “This is pretty much experimental,” he said. “We don’t make something like this all the time.”

  

  

  

  Visiting teen shot, killed after car honk

  Christina M. Woods, Wichita Eagle

  Shequita Staten’s ringtone, “Never Would Have Made It” by gospel artist Marvin Sapp, blasted as she talked about the shooting death of her 17-year-old cousin, Iesha Donaby.

  “It was crazy how it all went down,” she said.

  Donaby was riding Monday night with Staten and a 17-year-old boy, heading south on Hillside behind a white car, police said. The two cars turned right onto 11th Street, police said, and then the white car stopped.

  Staten said she waited, then honked at the white car as she went around. The three teenagers arrived at their destination, a home at 11th and Lorraine, and were walking to the front door when a man got out of the white car.

  He didn’t speak, Staten said.

  Instead, he shot at them. Donaby, who was struck several times, was pronounced dead around 11:55 p.m. at Wesley Medical Center, police said.

  Donaby was from West Helena, Ark., and was visiting family in Wichita.

  The family is offering a $5,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest.

  Tuesday afternoon, family members ushered reporters beyond the front door, which was marked with the handwritten words “Enter as guests… leave as friends,” to see blood and handprints lingering in the home.

  Donaby, the family said, stumbled into the house to say she had been hit and that she was dying before she collapsed.

  “I feel like I’m in a nightmare and can’t get up,” said her aunt, Ida Staten, who lives at the house.

  Katherine Staten, another aunt, said her niece was smart, loved track and basketball, would have graduated from high school next year and “was not a trouble child at all.”

  Katherine Staten said her brother called Donaby’s parents and relayed the news.

  The family plans to bury her in Arkansas on Saturday, Katherine Staten said.

  “She’s the first young loss we’ve had,” said Katherine Staten, adding that Donaby’s mom is one of 18 children. “She’s the first loss we’ve had in 12 years.”

  Katherine Staten said her sister, Donaby’s mother, had started calling more frequently, asking to talk with her daughter and telling her to come home.

  Donaby was packed and ready to leave Wichita on Thursday — before the Fourth of July holiday. Family members said she’d been in town since late May.

  “It was like a mother’s intuition,” Katherine Staten said.

  The Rev. Peggy Elliott, who has been facilitating citywide race-related dialogues and prayer walks through Wichita neighborhoods devastated by violence, learned about the shooting from The Eagle.

  “It’s to the point where any one death is a critical mass,” she said. “And we’re at a critical mass. And I recognize that there’s got to be something going on with individuals experiencing that much lack at valuing life.”

  Elliott said she’d like to see more men and area pastors hit the streets — even on weekends and in early-morning hours — praying and interacting with people to improve safety. Elliott said a community can’t be healed if it doesn’t feel safe.

  “My heart’s cry is, men get up, get out,” Elliott said. “It’s not going to be comfortable. It’s going to be time-consuming.”

  The Rev. Riccardo Harris has already taken that pledge, talking against violence throughout the city after his son, Robert Ridge, was slain in January at a stoplight because the shooter didn’t like the way Ridge looked at him. Harris was stunned hearing details about Donaby’s shooting death, which occurred several blocks from where his son was shot.

  “She comes here to die?” he said.

  “I can’t say the whole generation is lost,” Harris said, “but these young men are lost if they think that’s OK…. You can call it road rage if you want, but that’s rage bottled up inside of them.”

  Kevin Jones, who lives in the 11th and Lorraine neighborhood, raised his concerns about the area as he walked by the duplex Tuesday afternoon.

  “There’s no safety out here,” said Jones, who moved to Wichita three years ago.

  Kathleen Staten, another aunt, said she hopes Wichitans don’t dismiss the death because her niece was from out of town.

  And, to the shooter, Kathleen Staten said, “Don’t just walk away.”

  • 3:42 am
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