Cal State Students Help Those Who Have Lost Limbs

While many entering the medical field opt to become doctors or nurses, a few of the students at Cal State Dominguez Hills in Carson have decided instead to help people who need artificial limbs.

About 30 students at the university are scheduled to graduate later this month from a prosthetics program that trains them to make and fit artificial limbs for some of the estimated 120,000 people in this country who have amputations each year. The 13-year-old program is one of only seven in the nation.

During the nine-month program, students get hands-on experience with amputees who model the prosthetics.

Tom Martini, 72, has been modeling for the students for nearly a year now. The retired Lakewood man, who lost his right leg to diabetes four years ago, gets paid $75 per modeling session.

“I like helping the young people learn,” Martini said. “The stuff they’re making gets better all the time. Some of it makes it look [as though] you’re walking without a prosthetic, it’s so smooth.”

Program Director Scott Hornbeak said that fewer than 200 students in the nation graduate with a certificate in prosthetics each year. The starting pay isn’t bad--between $27,000 and $50,000 annually--but Hornbeak said most of the students are learning about prosthetics because they want to make a difference.

“This is rewarding because we’re getting someone who lost a limb up and walking again,” said student Lee Greenberg, 29, a former New York stockbroker. “We see the direct results of being able to help someone.”