Edward Kennedy Jr. Sets an Example for Disabled

His features reveal his famous heredity: the good looks of his uncle, the husky build of his father. But a glance at his right “leg” shows something special about this particular Kennedy.

Cancer began eating Edward Kennedy Jr.’s leg away more than a decade ago, when he was 12 years old, so doctors amputated it above the knee.

Another youth might have become embittered, but Teddy Jr.--whose family had known so much tragedy--refused to bemoan his fate. Instead he pushed himself to ski and to race boats, to promote self-pride for the handicapped (or the “physically challenged,” as he likes to call them), to join his father on a heartbreaking tour of famine-wracked Ethiopia and to campaign for family political candidates--although he insists he’s not personally seeking office . . .

The 23-year-old son of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) visited San Diego on Tuesday to finish being fitted with a “revolutionary” wooden prosthesis at a prosthetics firm called RGP Orthopedic Appliance Inc.

He was so pleased afterward that he declared, “I’m using muscles I haven’t used in 10 years . . . This is a revolutionary idea.”

Losing a leg at age 12 is “at first a very lonely thing. You feel you’re the only one going through it. The fact is, life doesn’t end after you have cancer . . . It’s easier to overcome if you can see other people who have overcome their challenge,” Kennedy said.

Traditional prostheses allow the user to walk slowly and, in some cases, rather awkwardly. But the new prosthesis--jointly invented in 1980 by RGP head Thomas Guth and Oklahoma City prosthetist John Sabolich--is “the first above-the-knee prosthesis that allows you to run,” Guth said at a press conference at RGP Tuesday.

The new prosthesis is called CAT-CAM (contoured adducted trochanteric controlled alignment method). It is ideal, Guth said, because it aligns the thigh bone, or femur, inward and puts it directly over the artificial leg and foot. Older types of artificial legs have sockets that force the femur outward, which sometimes creates an uncomfortable pressure on the skin, Guth said.

The cost is at least $6,000, about $2,000 more than a standard leg prosthesis. More than 1,000 people are now wearing CAT-CAMs, which are exclusively built by hand at RGP and at Sabolich’s firm.

Kennedy tours the country on behalf of a Massachusetts-based handicapped rights group to encourage others like him.

“Life poses all of us many challenges,” he said, looking slightly embarrassed by the magnitude of his words. “If you face up to the challenge, you become a better person for it.”