Double Amputee Track Star Seeks To Inspire Others By Winning
SYRACUSE (ABC4 News) - Hunter Woodhall is the fastest high school sophomore in the
state in the 400 meters and has qualified for the state championship in that event but
Hunter's "personal best" means a lot more than just 49.3 seconds on a stopwatch.
At a recent meet, Woodhall looked like any other runner preparing for his heat but a
closer look revealed he was walking on prosthetic blades. Hunter is a double amputee.
"When I was born I had a congenital bone deficiency so both of my legs were deformed
in a way that I wouldn't be able to walk," Woodhall explained to ABC4 Utah News. "At a
very young age my parents were faced with the decision to either amputate my legs or
be put in a wheelchair...and they chose to amputate my legs when I was 11 months old."
Four months later he was fitted with prosthetic legs at Shriners Hospital for Children in Salt Lake City.
"Once he got his prosthetics he stayed there at the hospital a couple of days with therapy,
physical therapy and was sent home with a walker," Hunter's mother Barb said in a Shriners
Hospital video."Within I think it was probably 3 months he was walking on his own without
the walker and just took off from there and we haven't been able to stop him since."
He wasn't missing his lower legs because he never knew what it was like to have them.
He went on do everything his two older brothers did: ski, swim, play basketball and even
wrestle, explaining his attitude in that Shriners video when he was 12.
"I don't feel sorry for myself because feeling sorry for yourself isn't going to get you
anywhere in life, " Woodhall said.
Now 16 and a sophomore at Syracuse High, Hunter explained what it's like to run
on those carbonfiber hooks that look kind of like upside down question marks.
For the full article & Video go to- http://www.good4utah.com/story/d/story/double-amputee-track-star-seeks-to-inspire-others/28803/FJsJS6ex7UWf6lHJ3iviqA
state in the 400 meters and has qualified for the state championship in that event but
Hunter's "personal best" means a lot more than just 49.3 seconds on a stopwatch.
At a recent meet, Woodhall looked like any other runner preparing for his heat but a
closer look revealed he was walking on prosthetic blades. Hunter is a double amputee.
"When I was born I had a congenital bone deficiency so both of my legs were deformed
in a way that I wouldn't be able to walk," Woodhall explained to ABC4 Utah News. "At a
very young age my parents were faced with the decision to either amputate my legs or
be put in a wheelchair...and they chose to amputate my legs when I was 11 months old."
Four months later he was fitted with prosthetic legs at Shriners Hospital for Children in Salt Lake City.
"Once he got his prosthetics he stayed there at the hospital a couple of days with therapy,
physical therapy and was sent home with a walker," Hunter's mother Barb said in a Shriners
Hospital video."Within I think it was probably 3 months he was walking on his own without
the walker and just took off from there and we haven't been able to stop him since."
He wasn't missing his lower legs because he never knew what it was like to have them.
He went on do everything his two older brothers did: ski, swim, play basketball and even
wrestle, explaining his attitude in that Shriners video when he was 12.
"I don't feel sorry for myself because feeling sorry for yourself isn't going to get you
anywhere in life, " Woodhall said.
Now 16 and a sophomore at Syracuse High, Hunter explained what it's like to run
on those carbonfiber hooks that look kind of like upside down question marks.
For the full article & Video go to- http://www.good4utah.com/story/d/story/double-amputee-track-star-seeks-to-inspire-others/28803/FJsJS6ex7UWf6lHJ3iviqA
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