Like Nowhere Else: Austin’s Story – Essentia Health Video Transcript
(DESCRIPTION)
A hockey player hits a puck. A woman stands outside the outdoor ice hockey rink.
(SPEECH)
CHRISTINA BERGLUND: My name is Christina Berglund and I am Austin’s mom.
(DESCRIPTION)
Two hockey players, players 9 and 39, glide across the ice wearing blue, yellow, and white outfits. Christina now sits on the indoor bleachers, wearing a hat that says Esko and has a circle pin with Austin’s picture on it.
(SPEECH)
Austin is nine years old. This is his first year playing hockey. He loves all sports.
(DESCRIPTION)
Player 9 dribbles the puck.
(SPEECH)
And it’s been a fun and exciting winter. AUSTIN BERGLUND: Teammate, you need to go back to your net. CHRISTINA BERGLUND: Austin was born missing the lower part of his right arm.
(DESCRIPTION)
Austin sits on a bench in his hockey gear and his mom snaps on a hockey attachment prosthetic to his arm.
(SPEECH)
When we first started this season, Austin had a body powered prosthetic with a hockey attachment for the end of it. But it was too tight on the stick. And for his age and ability, he wasn’t able to get the stick in and out of it or move it or really control it.
(DESCRIPTION)
Player 9 hits the puck while player 39 sits on the ice.
(SPEECH)
So then we switched to just his regular attachment and it wasn’t giving him any power or control with the stick. And because of that, he had started tucking the hockey stick underneath his arm. And we were worried that if he fell or went down, the stick was going to hit his armpit or could cause him an injury.
(DESCRIPTION)
Player 9 hits the puck into the net.
(SPEECH)
A few of the hockey dads were talking one night when they were doing icing at the rink. And one of the dads just happened to say, well, that’s what I actually do for a living. And that’s how we met Joe.
(DESCRIPTION)
Text, Joseph Vanderbosch. Orthotics and Prosthetics Operations Manager. Joseph sits in a medical office.
(SPEECH)
JOSEPH VANDERBOSCH: We noticed he needed more range of motion at his elbow, right, than what he had. So trying to change socket design a little bit, grabbing different areas. So the old socket he had is a self-suspending. So he’d get in there and then it’d hold on by being tight right above those condyles. But what that does, it significantly limits your range of motion at your elbow and also doesn’t allow you to pronate and supinate, right.
(DESCRIPTION)
He twists his wrist right and left.
(SPEECH)
And so we threw a liner on him with a little locking mechanism that has a little pin on the liner, so he can lock in and suspend that way.
(DESCRIPTION)
Austin twists his new prosthetic and hockey stick rapidly back and forth.
(SPEECH)
So we can kind of free up the range of motion at the elbow, so he could get much more range at the elbow. And we were able to grab him tight enough where we were capturing some pronation and supination. So he gets on that top hand, right, when you’re stick handling, you kind of have to use shoulder, internal and external rotation, and then also some pronation, supination. So I think that that helped too.
(DESCRIPTION)
In a sped-up video, they assemble the prosthetic in a workshop.
(SPEECH)
I wanted to turn it around for his hockey practice two days later in the evening at Carlton. I think it was the next day, I couldn’t sleep. I was up at like 4:00. I’m like, I’m going in, I got to start working on this thing. CHRISTINA BERGLUND: I think one of my favorite things about Joe is he seems to get just as excited about making this prosthetic for Austin as we do. Before you knew it, he actually met us at the rink one night with the actual arm and tried it on, fit him right there, and went out on the ice with him. Just the whole process was extremely fast and exciting, and it definitely made a huge impact on Austin’s first hockey season.
(DESCRIPTION)
Austin dribbles the puck.
(SPEECH)
The very first day he went out on the ice, it was really cute to watch him, because he was swinging his prosthetic arm behind his back and raising the stick over his head, doing things he hadn’t been able to do before. AUSTIN BERGLUND: Mom, we’re going to play cops and robbers. CHRISTINA BERGLUND: He is amazing. I learned really quickly not to think that Austin couldn’t do something. You can’t tell that boy no.
(DESCRIPTION)
Austin dribbles the puck, and player 39 approaches.
(SPEECH)
I’m excited to see what the future holds for us, working with Essentia, and what other amazing tools we can create for Austin for other things in his life to help him accomplish or achieve or go after any more of his dreams that he may have.
(DESCRIPTION)
The two hockey players leave the building and walk down a snowy path marked by tall orange cones. Text, Care Like Nowhere Else SM. Essentia Health. The Essentia Health logo appears, consisting of three leaves in a circle.
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