Local amputees take to Hanger Clinic to learn new skills, cultivate a community

SALISBURY, Md. – Step by step, to new beginnings.

Local amputees took to the Hanger Clinic in Salisbury to learn how to walk and run with different types of prosthetic legs.

“I lost my leg in 2022 and before then, I was a runner, playing volleyball and everything else, now I’m an above knee amputee,” said Tammy Wells.

For Wells, the focus is on regaining her strength and her confidence to get back up on her feet.

“I was like, ‘What if I fall,’ I think it’s the falling part that you really worry about, but then you get over that. You just get back up and do it again, because people with two feet fall,” Wells said.

For many amputees across the Eastern Shore, Tracy Shaw is their resource, coaching people like Wells through the rehabilitation process and encouraging them to turn small strides into even bigger ones.

“Seeing them accomplish something that they thought they would never do again and seeing them at their worst, like when they’ve found out they’re going to lose a limb, or that first day of thinking are they ever going to get to walking, and then to not only get them to walk, but to see them run and do all of the activities they we’re doing before, it’s the whole reason I show up every day,” Shaw said.

David Spiegel is on his own journey.

After losing his leg to sepsis last summer, Spiegel has been on the move, conditioning his legs so he can partake in something big, just one year after his amputation.

“My surgeon challenged me to run a 5k with him, then he challenged me to run a 10k after the 5k,” Spiegel said.

“I don’t know if we’re going that far, and I said fine, so I have been walking every day. I’m not up to running yet, and I’m going to get in shape to at least walk the 5k with him,” Spiegel added.

Getting better day by day, the two share the same sentiment: Life is a marathon, not a race.

“Just because on the first try around you lose something; just embrace the life you have left. That’s what I plan to do, embrace the time that I have left,” Wells said.

“I’m no different than anybody else, and I accept that and refuse to think anything different,” Spiegel added.