About a year after her legs were amputated, she finished third in a snowboarding competition at Mammoth Mountain. Through this grant, she was able to compete in several snowboarding competitions in the U.
In San Diego, she continued her pre-amputee profession as a massage therapist. She also became involved in the modeling and acting industry. In February , she played a model in a Madonna music video. Later in , Purdy started working for Freedom Innovations, a prosthetic feet manufacturer, as its "Amputee Advocate".
She has gone on to co-found her own non-profit organization, Adaptive Action Sports, a chapter of Disabled Sports USA for individuals with physical disabilities who want to get involved in action sports snowboarding, skateboarding, surfing or art and music. Other videos to watch about Amy's background also can be found on the internet.
They were the second team eliminated and finished in tenth place out of eleven teams. The program, hosted by Meredith Vieira, chronicled the journeys of seven U. Olympians and included interviews with parents and coaches along with home video and photos from each athlete's childhood. Purdy went on to win the bronze medal in Snowboard Cross in the Winter Paralympics.
The ad features Purdy snowboarding, dancing, and adjusting her prosthetic legs with a voiceover of Muhammad Ali's "How Great I Am" speech. Reviews questioned the efficacy of the ad; "It's really an ad about how amazing Amy Purdy is versus how amazing the new Camry is," said advertising professional Megan Hartman. After experiencing flu-like symptoms, Amy was rushed to the hospital in a state of septic shock.
After multiple blood transfusions, and the removal of her ruptured spleen, doctors diagnosed Amy with Meningococcal Meningitis, a vaccine preventable bacterial infection. Due to the lack of circulation she had suffered, doctors had to amputate her legs below the knee. She later received a donated kidney from her father a week before her 21st birthday.
After going through this life-altering experience, Amy challenged herself to move on with her life and attain goals that even those who have both legs struggle to achieve. She arrives on set maneuvering deftly on a pair of crutches, traveling with an assistant who helps her navigate tricky scenarios—like, say, opening the bathroom door or carrying a cup of coffee.
Amy is no stranger to physical hurdles. When she was 19, she left her job as a massage therapist early one day with what she thought was the flu. Less than 24 hours later, she was in the hospital on life support. She was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis and had both of her legs amputated below the knee. To say Amy bounced back almost sounds ridiculous, given the scope of her achievements in the 20 years since she lost her legs.
Once she recovered from the amputations, she more or less strapped on her prosthetics and was "go-go-go" for the next two decades: winning three Paralympic medals, completing stints on DWTS and The Amazing Race , building a robust motivational speaking career, and cofounding the Adaptive Action Sports organization she runs with her husband of four years, Daniel Gale. Today, I can glimpse the toll the past few months have taken. Her ever-present smile falters when she finds herself getting fatigued on set from standing on just one leg or using her arms to support her entire body weight on the swing.
And I can tell that the prospect of accidentally injuring herself further—or pushing her body too far—haunts her. Amy faces a dilemma: Further procedures will put her kidney at risk. But if she does nothing, she worries she may be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Determined to find a way to walk again, Amy gets on the phone. She calls the vascular surgeon who operated on victims of the Boston Marathon bombing.
She rings up Dr. Eventually, she finds a doctor in Denver who agrees to treat her while minimizing risk to her kidney. The treatment involves using a catheter to drip a clot-busting solution into Amy's leg for 24 hours. But it works—the clot is gone. The next challenge: to get Amy's blood flowing through her leg again. Amy spends the next three months recovering. Finally, in June, she feels ready to try on her left prosthetic for the first time.
But almost immediately, Amy says, "my leg turned purple and lost circulation at the very bottom. The culprit: Though the clot is gone, Amy's arteries are drastically shrunken due to the trauma, meaning blood flow to her leg is restricted.
The solution to this new hurdle involves a procedure that literally stretches out Amy's arteries. Painful, yes, but ultimately it dramatically improves blood flow and provides relief for some of the discomfort Amy has experienced since February.
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