Patient Stories: Learning to walk again after receiving a prosthetic leg

Myles Berrio, husband, father and entrepreneur in Greenville, was headed home from the gym when a drunk driver collided with his vehicle head-on. His next memory was of being asked for consent to amputate one of his legs to ensure the best chance of survival.

“As far as his injury spectrum,” said orthopedic trauma surgeon Dr. Michael Sridhar, “We were looking at limb- and life-threatening injuries. He broke all four extremities, including both femurs, a tibia, left elbow fracture and dislocation… some of the procedures needed to help him were incredibly complicated, including his eventual amputation.”

Berrio spent time in the ICU during his early recovery and found that graduating to heading downstairs to undergo physical therapy and rehabilitation, then to being fitted with a new prosthetic leg, gave him a sense of progress and motivation that helped him to push forward.

To get back to his active lifestyle, he first had to learn new adaptive ways of accomplishing the everyday tasks he once took for granted. Once his prosthetic leg was in place, he relearned how to walk and is back in the gym, back outdoors and back to living the life he loves with the family he adores.

“Just because something traumatic has happened in your life, it doesn’t have to control you,” said Berrio. “You can still live an incredible life!”