Like Nowhere Else: Austin’s Story – Essentia Health Video Transcript
(DESCRIPTION)
A hockey player hits a puck. A woman stands outside the outdoor ice hockey rink.
(TALK)
CHRISTINA BERGLUND: My name is Christina Berglund and I am Austin’s mother.
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Two hockey players, players 9 and 39, slide across the ice wearing blue, yellow and white clothing. Christina is now sitting in the indoor bleachers, wearing a hat that says Esko and has a lapel pin with Austin’s picture on it.
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Austin is nine years old. This is his first year playing hockey. He loves all sports.
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Player 9 dribbles the puck.
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And it has been a fun and exciting winter. AUSTIN BERGLUND: Teammate, you need to get back to your net. CHRISTINA BERGLUND: Austin was born without the lower part of his right arm.
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Austin sits on a bench in his hockey gear and his mom puts on a prosthetic arm.
(TALK)
When we first started this season, Austin had a body-powered prosthetic with a hockey attachment for the end of it. But it was too tight on the stick. And for his age and ability, he wasn’t able to get the cane in and out of it or move it or really control it.
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Player 9 hits the puck while player 39 sits on the ice.
(TALK)
So then we switched to just his regular attachment and it didn’t give him any power or control of the stick. And so he had started tucking the hockey stick under his arm. And we were worried that if he fell or went down, the cane would hit his armpit or cause him an injury.
(DESCRIPTION)
Player 9 hits the puck in the net.
(TALK)
A couple of the hockey fathers were talking one evening as they made ice cream at the rink. And one of the fathers happened to say, well, that’s actually what I do for a living. And that’s how we met Joe.
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Text, Joseph Vanderbosch. Operations manager for orthotics and prosthetics. Joseph is sitting in a doctor’s office.
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JOSEPH VANDERBOSCH: We noticed that he needed more mobility at his elbow, right, than what he had. So trying to change the socket design a little bit, grabbing different areas. So the old attitude he had is a self-suspending one. So he would get in there and then it would stay tight right over those condyles. But what it does, it significantly limits your range of motion at your elbow and also doesn’t allow you to pronate and supine, well.
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He twists his wrist left and right.
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And then we threw a liner on him with a little locking mechanism that has a little pin on the liner so he can lock in and hang that way.
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Austin quickly twirls his new prosthesis and hockey stick back and forth.
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So we can kind of free up the range of motion at the elbow so he could get a lot more range at the elbow. And we were able to grip him well enough where we caught some pronation and supination. So he gets on the top hand, right when you’re handling sticks you kind of have to use shoulder, internal and external rotation, and then also some pronation, supination. So I think that helped too.
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In a sped-up video, they assemble the prosthesis in a workshop.
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I would turn it around for his hockey practice two days later that night in Carlton. I think it was the next day I couldn’t sleep. I was up at 4:00. I’m like, I’m going in, I’m going to start working on this thing. CHRISTINA BERGLUND: I think one of my favorite things about Joe is that he seems to get as excited about making this prosthetic for Austin as we do. Before you knew it, he actually met us at the rink one night with the arm itself and tried it on, looked after him right there and went out on the ice with him. The whole process was extremely fast and exciting, and it certainly made a huge impact on Austin’s first season of hockey.
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Austin dribbles the puck.
(TALK)
The very first day he went out on the ice, it was really cute to see him, because he was swinging his prosthetic arm behind his back and lifting the stick over his head and doing things he hadn’t been able to do before. AUSTIN BERGLUND: Mom, we’re going to play cops and robbers. CHRISTINA BERGLUND: He’s fantastic. I learned really quickly not to believe that Austin couldn’t do anything. You can’t say no to that boy.
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Austin dribbles the puck and player 39 approaches.
(TALK)
I’m excited to see what the future holds for us, working with Essentia and what other great tools we can create for Austin for other things in his life to help him achieve or achieve or go after more of his dreams, which he may have.
(DESCRIPTION)
The two hockey players leave the building and walk down a snowy path marked by tall orange cones. Text, Care Like Nowhere Else SM. Essentia Health. The Essentia Health logo appears, consisting of three leaves in a circle.