The only certainties for Chelan Pedrow when she arrived at the University of Idaho in 2001 were that she got her first choice for a university, and that she wanted to dedicate her life to serving humankind.

Direction became clearer when she attended an on-campus major’s fair as a sophomore and talked with biological and agricultural engineering (BAE) personnel. Immediately intrigued by the study of biomedical engineering—affiliated with both the College of Engineering and the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences—she switched majors.

Within weeks, she discovered for herself the extreme need for medical personnel and engineers in China.

One summer in China’s orphanages
Pedrow, 19, from Moscow, was the first American intern through Holt International allowed into a Chinese orphanage in 2002. She traveled solo as a volunteer to the Nanchang Social Welfare Institute, a southern Chinese orphanage. Holt sent her to the largest institution in China, but by summer’s end she also visited a remote orphanage with no foreign support. What she found shocked her.

Chelan had imagined adorable, healthy children in need of a home. Nothing prepared her for heavily institutionalized children desperate for love and hope. Most are far from healthy. Without intervention, they will continue to live in poverty, and they know it. The mostly female population is starved for attention, often manifested through their small frames.

“I could not accurately guess a majority of their ages, due to underdevelopment from malnutrition and lack of attention. Many of the girls could not tell me their age, for their birth date was unknown, even to themselves. They only knew the day they were found on the street or were left at the orphanage,” Pedrow added.

Many girls were orphaned because of gender or disabilities—missing hands or extremities, a clubfoot, and underdeveloped limbs. Pedrow was also struck by the lack of handicap accessibility throughout the city.
At Nanchang, she fed, diapered, and rocked as many as 50 infants a day. The baby unit was fairly clean, equipped with Western medicines and technology including a much-in-demand washing machine. The magnitude of children placed as infant orphans is measured by hundreds of laundered diapers drying daily on rooftops.

Outside, “you are immediately hit with stench, heat, and humidity… but most disturbing is the hopelessness,” observed Pedrow. Orphans know they are poor and disadvantaged and they will never have a chance for a better life. Among them were faces she came to know and love.

The spunk of several adolescents especially sticks in her mind. One little girl with no hands could quickly snap her hair into a ponytail. A girl born without kneecaps compensated for ridicule by being the toughest fighter around. And she was an artist.

Inspiration for Pedrow’s invention
Three years after her southern China trip, Pedrow learned of another orphan who changed her focus—a four-year-old boy who lost both parents and his right leg above the knee in an automobile accident only a few weeks earlier.

The hardship of this boy, who desperately needed a prosthetic leg, plunged Pedrow farther along her humanitarian path. Problems are two-fold—expense, and the need for frequent limb replacement as he grows. Pedrow vowed to help this child half a world away.

All engineering students must take a year-long design course to identify a problem related to their major and design a solution that includes problem-solving pieces of synthesis, analysis, construction, and testing.

Pedrow immediately knew she wanted to design a prosthetic leg for the orphan that would grow as he grew. Limbs grow, but prosthetics don’t. No one has designed an automated “growable” lower-limb prosthetic.

Getting help from Industry
Partnering with BAE students Matt Plastaid and Jennifer Neibling, the team pitched their idea to prosthetic companies. Most agreed on the problem, and finally Hanger Prosthetics & Orthotics, Inc., of Flushing, NY, said, “Yes!” Company officials shipped the team a child’s used lower-limb prosthetic, valued at $12,000 when new, and forwarded the group’s ideas to Kevin Carroll, vice president of prosthetics. Carroll offered to mentor Pedrow’s team and sponsor their project. The team motto became, Students working hand in hand to rebuild a mobile future.

It took a lot of brainstorming, disappointments, and failures before they came up with the idea of a computer chip to recognize growth spurts and then adjust the length of the prosthetic accordingly. The technical title was “Introducing Epiphyseal Plates into Lower-Limb Prosthetics.” Many tests and trials over the year came together in a working, functioning prototype, just in time for the annual UI Engineering Design Expo in April 2005. So unique and successful was the idea, design, and presentation that the team won an outstanding award at Expo.

Next steps—patent, production
With a successful prototype in place, the next step is a patent through the UI Research Office, and then production.

Will the prosthesis ever make it to the boy in China? “Our prototype was put together with recycled motors and found parts. It definitely still needs lots of work from a large manufacturer, and production is probably still years off,” says Pedrow. Meanwhile, the young lad has found a home with a foster family.

Spring break in Jordan
When Pedrow graduates in May 2006, she plans to attend graduate school for official prosthetics training. She hopes to work with soldiers and civilians worldwide, whose lives have been irreversibly changed by war.

Pedrow wants to spend her last spring break as an undergraduate working with Physicians for Peace at the Farah Rehabilitation Center at King Hussein Medical Center (KHMC) in Amman, Jordan helping amputees.

Pedrow is guided by compassion grounded in a deep Christian faith. “Chelan reminds me of why I am in higher education,” says Barbara Williams, her adviser. “She takes advantage of all available UI resources, and challenges all of us around her to meet ever higher standards.”
“
Life isn’t the easiest to live,” observes Pedrow. “But its sure is exciting!”
Contact dynamic.prosthetics@gmail.com.