Former Winnipegger says 'bionic' leg almost like the real thing

For two decades, Paul Tolainilived with pain, pressure sores and broken skin;the side-effects of using a traditional prosthetic leg after helost his in a motorcycle accident in Winnipegin 1992.

But that all changed last month.

Tolaini has put aside hisoldprosthetic legand can walk, withcrutches,using anew titanium implant.

"The first few steps wereremarkable. You know having that solid, direct connection to the ground, no socket [prosthetic] needed, it was very emotional," he told CBC's Marcy Markusa host of Information Radio.

At 44years old, Tolaini is one of the few people in Canadawho has undergone surgery for a titanium leg implant. The medical term is osseointegration.In other words, allowing the bone to integrate with the artificial limb.

"I'm a below-knee amputee so they place (theimplant) into the tibia bone or shin bone and in my case my prosthetic foot is attached directly to the bone through that implant," he said.

Bionic maybe, but titanium hardly futuristic

Tolainisaid he hasheard the jokes about Terminator or the Six Million Dollar Man, but he saysthe titanium technology is in fact decadesold.It is already used in dental implants as well as artificial hips and knees.

"Titanium has a unique natural ability. Bone will grow into it," he said.

And Tolainisays, for roughly the price of a Jeep Grand Cherokeehe has "massively" improved his quality of life.

According to theOsseointegrationGroup of Australia,contact with the ground is the procedure'skey benefit. It offers amputees greater stabilityand minimizesenergy exertedto walk. The effects can be especially beneficial to bilateral amputees: people who have lost both legs.

Hopes new leg will feel like the original

Tolaini says he made the decision to travel to Australia for the procedure after hearing from other amputees who had "life changing" results.Still, it was scary finally agreeing to go ahead with the surgery, he said.

"You're comfortable with what you know and I think as a person you have to occasionally step out of your comfort zone in order to grow," he said.

The bigtest for Tolainiiswhether the implant eventuallyfeels like he hashis biologicalleg back, asensation other patients told him they experienced.

Tolaini told Marcy he cannotknow for sure until he is able to put the full weight of his body on his new leg without crutches,but so far"it certainly seems that way."

Hear Paul Tolaini's story today at 8:10 a.m.on Information Radio with Marcy Markusa. 89.3FM 990AM.