The world we live in is an imperfect place. The hope that many people have, particularly younger folks preparing for college or a career, is that they can somehow make a difference. While it’s nice to receive a paycheck, the ultimate reward is the feeling that the skills and talents you have are contributing to improving the world. One individual who’s finding innovative ways to make change is Jared Lamph of Idaho Prosthetics and Orthotics.
Every day, Lamph meets patients who all have one goal in common: they want to get back to living their life as normally as they can. “People of all ages come in here and need a problem solved,” said Lamph. Patients come in many shapes and sizes: there’s the young athlete with a serious knee injury, the senior who has arthritis and experiences serious pain when they’re walking, an amputee who lost their leg in an accident.
Lamph builds prosthetic limbs and orthotic braces. No matter how simple or complex, he and his team work to help alleviate pain and get people back to living a fuller life. The practice can do anything and everything: a knee brace for a torn ACL, a support that takes the pressure off of the foot while taking steps, back braces for scoliosis patients, prosthetic legs specially made for running, and much more. “We can do cool stuff, very custom stuff,” said Lamph.
An Idaho native, Lamph grew up in Rexburg and attended Ricks College. “I knew I wanted to go into health, but wasn’t sure exactly what [field],” said Lamph. “My brother-in-law who was studying physical therapy at Creighton [University] took a course on prosthetics. He came back to visit for Christmas, and we were talking about what I wanted to do. He told me ‘I took a course on prosthetics. If I wasn’t so deep in physical therapy, I would go into prosthetics; it looks like a really cool field.’ I didn’t know anything about prosthetics, but when he said it, it just clicked.”
Lamph explained that he went to research prosthetics at the library and spoke to some people who had experience in the field. “All the advice I got was to get hands-on experience before you commit to school,” said Lamph, so after being accepted to Humboldt State in northern California, he volunteered at a prosthetics practice and was eventually hired there. He was lead to the prosthetics program at California State Dominguez Hills, after which he completed a residency in Beverly Hills. After spending ten years in California, he and his family returned to Idaho, where he eventually purchased Idaho Prosthetics and Orthotics from the founder, Randy Hamm, an amputee himself.
Frequently, Lamph’s patients have experienced severe trauma that caused the loss of their limbs. “People often compare losing a limb to losing a loved one,” he said. “It’s a big life change.” An example of that change is a patient in his twenties who lost his leg in a car accident. “He pulled off of the freeway to switch seats with a relative, walked around the car to get into the driver’s side and a semi hit him,” Lamph said. “It took off his right leg and only left six inches of residual limb. His other leg was destroyed and rebuilt with plates and screws. It’s a challenging [prosthetic] fit because of the scarring; they [surgeons] try to salvage as much as they can... A dad, with young kids? That’s tough.”
Many patients who’ve been in these accidents find themselves in wheelchairs and experience pain on a daily basis. “It’s very rewarding to help people get back on their feet; literally,” said Lamph. “There’s not many jobs as rewarding as having a patient come in without a leg in a wheelchair. [Later that day], they walk out of the office on their own. It’s instant gratification. The same applies to orthotics: if you’re so focused on the pain in your foot or on not tripping, when I can make an orthosis that picks up your foot for you so you don’t have to think about it all day, every day. It’s draining to focus on every step; it’s stuff that you might not think about that helps patients get through every day. There’s a wide spectrum of how we can help.”
Ultimately, the goal of Lamph and his staff is to grant independence and mobility back to their patients. With some creative thinking, they can enable a patient to living a normal lifestyle, and it can be an emotional experience. “[When a new patient comes in], I ask them what they want to do, what they did before. Do they want to go back to work? Do they just want to be able to walk from room to room? I just listen. There’s tears, emotions… I think everyone wants to have a job that makes a difference. I don’t know everything and I can’t solve every problem, but my job is to be a problem solver.”
Whether it’s your skill set, talents, or even just a conversation that sparks curiosity, there are so many avenues you can take to make positive change in the world. Helping people stand tall (sometimes literally) makes a huge difference. “Growing up, I never imagined I’d have a job I’d really enjoy, but it’s a very cool job. I love coming to work,” said Lamph.
You can find out more about Idaho Prosthetics and Orthotics by calling their Idaho Falls office at 523-9000 or by visiting them online at idahopando.com.