Toot Your Own Horn
Name: David Sisson
Occupation: Prosthetist at Sisson Mobility Restoration Center, 4343 W. Beltline
Age: 51
Web site: www.sissonmobility.com
About 70 percent of my patients are amputees of lower extremities from diabetes or vascular disease. The success of fitting prosthetics is to make the prosthetic socket, the part that connects the artificial arm or leg to what remains of the patient's natural limb, comfortable. The socket can be a source of discomfort or even pain causing the patient to wear their artificial limb for only short periods of time, if at all.
Everyone is different in what they need for comfort and weight-bearing prosthetics. Surgeons all do the surgery different, so the socket is a slightly different shape. I have to design the socket to fit that shape. There isn't an off-the-shelf solution for everyone, so I have to come up with a unique solution for each of my patients. I've designed limbs for an infant all the way up to a 102-year-old. I've also worked with veterans of all major conflicts from the Spanish-American War to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
I literally grew up in this field. While in high school, I had a job delivering pizzas for a pizza parlor in Chicago but decided I needed a change.
I began working for Ballert Orthopedics sanding out wooden legs. In 1974, artificial legs were carved from a block of willow wood. I used to make the adjustments with sandpaper and a chisel. I would take measurements, make a drawing and cut the wood with a band saw, start carving it with a big machine and fitting it to the patient.
Since then, I've seen probably five or six generations of technology come and go. Today, I make my adjustments using a laptop, because everything is computerized such as the C-Leg, which has built-in microprocessors.
I studied prosthetics at the City College of Chicago and was a senior staff prosthetist at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
In 1987, I developed the Sisson seat, a casting device, which is a seat for above-the-knee amputees to sit in while I'm fitting them. The device allows my hands to be freed up to do the adjustments needed for fitting the prosthetics to obtain more consistent results.
What I Do invites people to tell in their own words what they do to make a living. The column runs every Tuesday. To suggest someone to feature, contact Jill Carlson at jillcarlson1957@gmail.com.
I design, fabricate and fit prosthetic and artificial limbs. I opened my clinic in 2000 to provide prosthetic solutions that address my patients' physical needs as well as their lifestyle and lifework.
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