When I got out of the service, I had a bad knee as result of some rather unfriendly and careless people over in the orient tossing big fircrackers around. I eventually had to have it fixed at VA hospital in West Haven. While there, I met a man who had met up with high voltage power lines and he lost both arms. It was in the early days of prosthesuses and they cut the arms off leaving about 1" stubs at the shoulders. They thought it would give better chance for attachment. Wrong decision. Before i left the hospital, I was sort of visiting the nurses station hoping for some extra curicular and very unofficial business when i got involved in a discussion about how to handle transportation to the Brooklyn VA Hospital for the man with no arms. I volunteered.
I may have written about this in the past, but it was a very impressive visit. In the amputee ward, there were maybe 8 to 10 guys. All were in various amounts of amputatations from one arm or leg to one vet who had no arms or legs. The poor nurses on that ward had to really pay attention. they were being grabbed from every direction as those guys were all crazy with all sorts of antics. That was one jolly crew and constant action. The one guy who had no arms or legs, I forget how much of each appendage had been amputated, but there was nothing below elbows or knees. somehow, a car (Oldsmobile) had been donated and fit with harnesses to car and his own body. Somebody had to put him into the car, but once in and hooked up, he could drive. I did not actually see him drive, but the nurses told me he had been driving for a month or so already.
That trip to Brooklyn was a real eye opener and it was very surprising to see so many guys who could have been very depressed but acting so very upbeat.
My friend, when he was being interviewed by psychologists, among the many questions he had been asked was, "Do you feel strange being without arms." His reply had been, "I think it is strange when people walk around with two arms and two legs. Don't you?" I would not say he was a happy guy, but he was hanging in there. Shortly, he was sent back to Virginia VA, and I lost track of him.
Tinker
