Your First Prosthesis
What happens from the hospital to your final prosthesis, for a leg or an arm.
About your first prosthesis
Losing a leg or an arm turns life upside down, and nobody expects you to know what happens next. This page walks you through it, from the hospital to your final prosthesis, whether it is a leg or an arm.
We make every prosthesis here, fit it ourselves, and stay with you as you learn to use it and as your limb changes over the years.
You can phone us at any stage on 011 782 7809. Some medical aids need a referral from your doctor before you can claim. Read what happens at your first visit.
In hospital
Our team sees patients at Johannesburg Surgical Hospital and Life Wilgeheuwel Hospital, and works with the surgeons there, vascular and orthopaedic surgeons among them. If you are in one of those hospitals, ask the ward or your surgeon to call us.
While your limb heals
After the operation your limb needs time to heal, and the swelling needs to go down. A firm sock called a shrinker, which we supply and fit, helps it settle into a shape a socket can fit.
A physiotherapist helps you stay strong and keep the joints above the amputation moving. We do not do physiotherapy ourselves, but we work with physiotherapists we can put you in touch with.
Your first socket
The socket is the part your limb fits into, and the most important part of any prosthesis. We take a cast of your limb, by hand or with a vacuum cast, and make a test socket from it, usually in clear plastic, so that we can see exactly how your limb sits in it before anything else is built on.
Then the rest is added: for a leg, a liner, a knee if the amputation is at or above the knee, a pylon and a foot; for an arm, a hand or hook, a wrist and, at the higher levels, an elbow. We choose each part with you, for how active you are and what your budget allows.
Learning to use it
With a leg, you take your first steps holding on, and build up from there: standing, walking, then stairs, slopes and uneven ground. With an arm, you learn to open and close the hand, and with a myoelectric hand, to work it with the muscles of your arm.
We advise you on walking and training as you go, and the physiotherapists we work with can help you build up.
Your limb keeps changing shape for months as it settles, so we see you often in this time, to adjust the socket and keep it comfortable.
Your final prosthesis
Once your limb has settled, we make your final socket in carbon fibre, or in fibreglass and resin, and build your prosthesis on it. You keep coming back for check-ups and adjustments: more often at first, and then about once a year, because a limb changes over the years, and so do the things you want to do.
Medical aid
We claim from most medical aids ourselves. Some need a referral from your doctor before you can claim. You pay a deposit for your prosthesis first, and the balance before you receive it.
We help you through your medical aid, including Prescribed Minimum Benefits: conditions that medical aids must cover by law.
Who you will see
You will see one of our three prosthetists and orthotists: Gerrit Ferreira (our founder, a master prosthetist and orthotist), Antois Ferreira or Casper Steenkamp. Between them they make and fit every kind of prosthesis, for legs and for arms.
They work as one team, so you may start with one of them and, over the years, be looked after by another.
Antois and Casper also run our Hospital Division, so you may meet one of them in hospital first.