There are so many advances being made now in medical science and technology it is simply mind boggling isn’t it? One such area of medical technology is the area of prosthetic enhancement. These incredible advances in medicine are enormous contributors to the quality of life for some people. We all know this, but how about for animals?
There have been many prosthetic devices created specifically for animals, but never before has there been a prosthetic made for a sea turtle- but there will be soon! At this very moment, a prosthetic flipper is in the works for an injured sea turtle, who lost three of its four flippers, and without at least one more, she will most likely die in the wild. Allison, a 3 year-old Green Sea Turtle, was only about 5 inches long when she was found. Now she is almost 10 pounds and has a difficult time keeping her head up with only one flipper. At three years of age, she is quite young for a sea turtle (they can grow to be 450 pounds and live to be a century old!), and with her whole life ahead of her, there would be little hope for a quality life, while missing 3 of her 4 flippers- most likely due to a shark attack.
Although she is doing fine now and healing well, her outcome for the future looked dismal. “The wounds have healed very nicely. The problem is she doesn’t swim very well,” said Jeff George, curator at the nonprofit Sea Turtle Inc., a 31 year-old turtle conservation facility that treats and returns injured sea turtles to the wild. Now her caregivers hope to give her what will most likely be the first prosthetic flipper made for a sea turtle. A group of medical professionals and veterinarians have joined together to try to make a prosthetic flipper for the turtle. They include an assistant professor at the world-renowned University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and the UT Dental Branch in Houston, and they are all volunteering to help this amazing creature.
University of Texas’ Dr. Sudarat Kiat-Amnuay plans to develop the prosthetic using the same kind of silicon she uses to create facial prosthetics for humans and attach it to a stump, which was left on one of the sides where there was a flipper. Her dental expertise is helpful because she is used to working with dental implants that are the size of Allison’s small bones. Kiat-Amnuay plans to use the same technique she would to create a prosthetic nose or ears for a human patient. She’ll use sculpting wax and molds created from a dead turtle’s flipper and then custom fit one for Allison. “It will be interesting and it will be fun,” she said. And “if you’re able to work on her, you may be able to apply it and work on more turtles.”
The Gorilla finds this kind of generosity and compassion mind-blowing and moving. The Green Sea Turtle is truly one of life’s most gentle and enigmatic creatures. Whenever we come together to promote life for another, whether it be man or beast, we are working in accordance with Mother Nature and God. But, there is still much funding needed for this project! All of these good doctors are volunteering their time, but there are still costs for the actual procedure and prosthetics. If you would like to help this beautiful creature in its quest for a better quality of life you can donate by going to: http://www.seaturtleinc.com . Allison thanks you and so does the Gorilla!