When Shawn Jones joined the Navy in 2008, he wanted to be an air\u00a0rescue swimmer, jumping\u00a0out of helicopters to save soldiers in choppy waters.\u00a0Jones\u00a0didn\u2019t make the program\u2014instead spending\u00a0his five years of service as a crane operator, event planner, and weapons specialist\u2014but in his retirement, he has found another\u00a0way to help soldiers struggling to swim. Jones is currently developing the world\u2019s most advanced prosthetic flipper.<\/p>\n
Prosthetics designed specifically for water sports started appearing in the last decade, driven\u00a0by veteran rehabilitation\u00a0organizations like\u00a0Soldiers Undertaking Disabled Scuba\u00a0(SUDS)\u00a0and California Polytechnic State University\u2019s\u00a0QL+ Laboratory. It\u2019s a unique engineering\u00a0challenge:\u00a0Most underwater\u00a0leg\u00a0prosthetics only function as fins or flippers, but not pegs, so amputees can\u2019t walk into the water.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just a recreation accessibility problem.\u00a0Organizations like SUDS, Wave Academy, and Operation Blue Pride\u00a0(where Jones has volunteered for over a year)\u00a0promote swimming and diving to disabled veterans as a way to treat physical injuries and mental health issues like post-traumautic stress (PTS). A\u00a0recent\u00a0Johns Hopkins study, in fact,\u00a0showed that PTS-diagnosed veterans who participated in weekly Wave Academy sessions experienced a 28-percent decrease in symptons\u2014including improved sleep, decreased pain, and lower anxiety.<\/p>\n
Jones\u2019s prototype, Triton,\u00a0is the first prosthetic to\u00a0double\u00a0as both\u00a0leg and\u00a0flipper. The dual functionality is made possible by\u00a0an attachment system Jones developed while studying design at Northeastern University, where he\u00a0graduated this\u00a0spring.\u00a0Now, funded by a\u00a0grant from 3D printing startup Shapeways, Jones wants to \u201cbreak this into something huge.\u201d\u00a0He talked to GOOD about the design\u2019s inspiration and future.<\/p>\n
Northeastern University has\u00a0a Student Veterans\u00a0Organization.\u00a0They had a meeting and said, if you\u2019re interested in scuba diving for free, [Operation Blue Pride]\u00a0will hook you up. I was like, well that sounds exciting. I had never gone scuba diving. I think everyone is kind of\u00a0nervous about going 90 feet underwater without that much oxygen.<\/p>\n
They taught me within four or five weeks to scuba dive, gave me certification, and then I started working with them. Last year, I actually took a handicapped scuba diving course\u00a0where I learned how to be a scuba buddy for paraplegics and blind scuba divers.<\/p>\n
There was a guy coming through the [Operation Blue Pride] program. He was a single leg amputee. He ended up quitting after a couple weeks because he couldn\u2019t perform as much as the rest of the guys. I thought, here\u2019s a problem that we need to solve.\u00a0This guy can\u2019t really function in the water with his current prosthetic. Maybe with some of the skills I learned, I can create something for him. I came up with a few drawings of what I wanted to make, and I started printing mechanical components for this piece. It looked nothing like the one I actually created for my second prototype, but it was a way to get my foot in the door.<\/p>\n
One of the first prototypes I made was going to be a straight leg [with] a flipper at the very bottom. But you can\u2019t walk on it. After taking my capstone class, I worked with a mechanical engineer and masters student [to study]\u00a0the feasibility of what I could actually do with the design. We decided it would be the best option to make it so you can walk on it. Something like a peg.<\/p>\n
My second design was one where you attach [the flipper] to the socket, which is carbon fiber, where he puts his stump. It screws into the regular screws that already exist. It\u2019s basically like a cane that I took from my regular walking cane. Then I added a fiberglass flipper that I created myself. That was a diaster the first couple times. The connection point that I used for the crutch and his prosthetic, I 3D printed. I only had plastic as an option. It was good and then it snapped.<\/p>\n
Therapy [through] scuba diving has really benefited those with post-traumatic stress. I actually taught somehow how to scuba dive underwater. I was like\u00a0his buddy. He was freaking out underwater. Right as he went underwater, he had to regulate his heart rate and his oxygen tank. Just by doing that, he actually calms himself down. He\u2019s in his own environment down there. Same thing with amputees. They still have PTSD. They feel more calm underwater.<\/p>\n
I am actually getting into the medical research on how water therapy helps legs build muscle. I know from personal experience. I destroyed my back in the military and the water helped me. I went from not being able to walk\u00a0after my surgery, to walking and running. It took about a year to get back to where I was. Even today, it\u2019s still a bad pain. But\u00a0swimming is my place to go. You don\u2019t have any pressure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Shawn Jones joined the Navy in 2008, he wanted to be an air\u00a0rescue swimmer, jumping\u00a0out of helicopters to save soldiers in choppy waters.\u00a0Jones\u00a0didn\u2019t make the program\u2014instead spending\u00a0his five years of service as a crane operator, event planner, and weapons specialist\u2014but in his retirement, he has found another\u00a0way to help soldiers struggling to swim. Jones…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}