Amputee develops device to help swim

Swim Again consists of a swim joint designed by Quade that makes swimming with fins easier for people who wear prosthetic legs.

Quade had a motorcycle accident in 2006 that led him to lose one leg. As he was always an active person, he never stopped doing sports. But when he wanted to go scuba diving, the options on the market were not ideal.

“The only thing that was on the market didn’t last,” Vaught said. “It was built to last a year, maybe two, and it would break. I’m hard on stuff, and it was like $3,000 for the lower-end gear. I thought that I could design something that would last a lifetime for a quarter of the price. I sat down, got out my drafting book and got the thing sketched out. I have a cousin that runs a machine shop, so I went to him to build the prototype”, the inventor explained.

According to Quade, the problem with normal prosthetics is that they have no downward drop of the foot and create a drag while swimming. So he needed a gadget that could be angled for swimming as well as durable and affordable.

“If you take this pin out, it will allow you to drop it into position so your fin is actually sitting the way it’s supposed to,” Vaught said. “When you get ready to walk, you pull the pin, and it goes back into position. You don’t have to have someone there to help you get in and out of the water. … It started out just for me, but I thought this could help a lot of people and save them a lot of money”, he said.

Quade built a prototype and then patented his invention, which he began selling online, after creating his own company.

Adapted from: https://bit.ly/3asw2yJ