Daniel Bastian knows about prosthetics from his own painful personal experience.
Bastian, vice president and co-founder of Progressive Orthotics and Prosthetics in Albertson, was stricken with a rare form of cancer at age 15. Ten years and 18 surgeries later, he gave up on trying to save his right leg and underwent an operation to have the leg amputated above the knee.
So when he talks to patients who have undergone similar surgery, they know he can relate to their misgivings about carrying on a normal lifestyle.
“They identify with me. I’ve been there. It’s harder for them to say ‘I can’t do it’,” Bastian said. “It gives them hope. It’s extremely rewarding.”
It’s also encouraging when they see the pictures of Bastian snow skiing and water skiing with his prosthetic leg on the walls of the Progressive O&P offices at 1111 Willis Ave. where the business held its grand opening last Wednsday.
Bastian is also an avid golfer. After his own ordeal that culminated in the loss of his leg, Bastian said he was intent to resume an active lifestyle.
“I was a very active 15-year-old and all of a sudden, I couldn’t do anything,” Bastian said.
Today, Bastian has the latest generation of a leg prosthesis, a Genium microprocessor-controlled prosthetic knee from Otto Block Health Care. Computer- controlled prostheses are a relatively new development in the past decade, as prosthetics have also advanced past the stage of the inflexible material formerly used to make them.
“Whenever there’s a war, there’s always an advancement in prosthetics,” said Bastian, who noted that the U.S. Department of Defense commissioned the latest technology, which includes an X2 that allows patients to run on the artificial limb.
Bastian said this latest technology will provide greater comfort and mobility to both new and current prosthetic users who choose to switch to the new technology.
Bastian graduated from Marist College with a B.S. in computer science and landed a job as a systems programmer for IBM before deciding to change his career. He had been volunteering his time at Sloan Kettering Hospital in Manhattan to give young cancer survivors who’s lost limbs to the disease some sense of hope. He quit his job, earned a graduate degree from the University of Connecticut at the Newington Children’s Hospital and went to work in the field.
He and his partner, Sal Martella, president of Progressive O&P, met while working together at a prosthetics company in Hicksville. They started their business 11 years ago in Carle Place, moving to larger quarters in Albertson in April.
Their company fits hundreds of amputee patients with prosthetic legs and arms each year, as many as 100 of those for free using prosthetics from patients who have obtained newer models.
“They’ve been through serious trauma. For us to give them back a part of their life, it doesn’t get any better than that,” Bastian said.
All of the prosthetic limbs Progressive O&P creates are custom-fitted for each patient and produced at its Albertson offices. A plaster mold or fiberglass cast is taken of the limb. The mold is then filled with plaster and plastic mold is made over that after being heated in a special oven to make it pliable.
The company doesn’t provide post-surgical therapy for patients, but it does help them adjust to using their new leg prostheses with the use of a machine called the Alter G. The machine calibrates the patient’s weight and creates an anti-gravity condition as the patients wear rubberized pants that enable them to safely acclimate to the prosthesis.
“You get the sensation of walking without the impact or the fear of falling,” Bastian said.
One patient who lost both legs above the knee and his forearms in a dormitory fire at Hofstra University, was fitted with prostheses for both legs and arms and is now able to play golf. Another patient, a veteran who lost a leg in the crash of a helicopter in Somalia was fitted with a pre-compter knee and re-enlisted in the U.S. Army Special Forces
Progressive O&P works mainly with vascular surgeons, since diabetes is the most common cause of leg amputations. And the company has privileges to visit its patients at hospitals in the Long Island Jewish-North Shore system both before and after surgery.
“I go to see them and talk to them before surgery just to put their minds at ease,” Bastian said.
Bastian said it was a “relief” after his own amputation surgery was performed. The bonus for him has been the ability to coach his 14-year-old son Noah’s football and baseball teams and to coach his 10-year-old daughter Lilly’s basketball team.
He credits his wife Tricia for giving him emotional support through his final surgery and supporting him in the change of career that has become such a source of fulfillment.
“My wife is phenomenal. She’s always been there for me,” Bastian said.