Lance Gieselmann

In late 2003 while deployed in Iraq, Specialist Lance Gieselmann made a routine trip down the narrow Baghdad streets in a tank with his two best friends. On the return trip, the night sky lit up as the tank rolled over a remote-controlled bomb. The explosion cut a crater the size of a swimming pool into the desert road and blew the tank's turret 50 yards away. Lance was the only survivor. His back was broken. He had severe shrapnel injuries including a large piece in his stomach - and his left leg had to be amputated. His injuries were extensive, and Lance would spend most of the next month in a coma.

After several months in military hospitals overseas, Lance was told he would be confined to a wheelchair for life. "They told me I would never walk again," remembers Gieselmann. "I just said, 'We'll see.' "

Although Lance wanted to prove the doctors wrong, four years later, it seemed they might be right. He had been fitted for a prosthetic leg and sent to physical rehabilitation, but the excruciating pain of a traditional prosthesis stole his hope. After fighting in Iraq, fighting to recover from his injuries and fighting to prove his prognosis wrong, his will to fight was almost gone. He was released from military care and sent home to his wife, their two young children and his own battle with depression. "Those were dark days," Gieselmann recalls. "I had pretty much given up. I hated for my wife and kids to see me like that."

A glimmer of hope emerged when he was referred to Dr. David Alford, an orthopaedic surgeon with Symmetry's partner in amputee treatment, Southern Bone and Joint Specialists.

"Dr. Alford found out why I was having so much trouble. I still had some shrapnel in my leg, above the amputation site, and the bone was deformed. He did the surgery to take care of that, and then he told me about the new Symmetry prosthesis system. Even though what was left of my leg was in such horrible shape, he said this might help me walk again. It was worth a try!"

At Dr. Alford's recommendation, Gieselmann was fitted with a Symmetry prosthesis.

The result: "It's still hard for me to believe I can walk again without pain! The Symmetry prosthesis fits so well, I can coach my son's baseball team without worrying about my leg. Little things like that turn into big things when you're wearing a prosthesis. It's something most people don't think about, but it makes all the difference in the world. Symmetry really has changed my life!"