A Leg Up For Golf

Don Pelechek of Coralville hopes to test his new $74,000 leg on the golf course soon. Already, after only using it a couple of months, he's very optimistic. (See today's Ramblin' column in The Gazette.)

"It's a dream, anyway," said the 74-year-old retired lithographer from Moore Business Forms in Iowa City.

Don began golfing in 1960 at area courses. About three years ago he and his wife, Ellen, moved to a home near Brown Deer Golf Course in Coralville. He can look out the screened in porch to the No. 1 fairway.

Last summer Don felt a painful lump in his left thigh. Tests showed he had sarcoma, a cancer that required amputation of the leg from the hip socket down. Don asked about a prosthesis.

"They said it would be difficult but not impossible," he says. "They didn't know how bad I wanted to walk again."

After thinking about it through early winter, Don called the local Hanger Prosthetics center. After an examination, he took a two-day trip to Minneapolis to try out a new leg. Everything seemed promising, so a custom leg was ordered.

An amazing object, the leg includes a $14,000 helix joint that connects beneath his hip bone and that's anchored to him with a body cast that straps around his lower torso. The lower part of the leg, a $60,000 Otto Boch C-Leg, has a special microprocessor in the knee that can be programmed. Eventually, Don will be able to adjust it with a remote control.

For now Don still needs to use a cane when he walks. But, every day, with rehab and practice, he's getting better and better. And he has the right attitude.

At one point while we talked, he showed how he can swivel his knee 360 degrees, something you or I can't do. He also jokes that his foot "tickles."

In reality, though, Don is very determined. That's what sets him apart from others who might have similar dreams.

Don has no grand illusions of shooting a great round of golf with the new leg. He was a bogey golfer or a little higher before his surgery. But, the miracle of medicine gives him a chance to continue to enjoy the game he's played for 40 years. He can't ask for more than that.