A Fresh Start

In the Netherlands, approximately 10,000 children and young adults are unnecessarily confined to their homes. Due to insufficient coverage provided by health insurance, the majority of prosthesis users are reimbursed for only one basic prosthesis every five years. However, someone with a leg prosthesis needs different feet to be able to walk, swim, play sports, or even wear high heels on occasion. Additional legs are not covered and must be purchased by the user. An additional leg costs an average of €10,000.

For an able-bodied person, this would mean being allowed to buy only one pair of shoes every five years. So, for example, if you choose ski boots, you’d have to wear them to work as well. If you choose dress shoes, then for five years you wouldn’t be able to go on a winter sports vacation, play soccer, play tennis, or go to the beach without wearing dress shoes.

The JUMP, the Junior Modular Prosthesis, is set to change all that. The Bibian Mentel Foundation has developed a prosthesis that provides children and young adults with a leg featuring multiple feet that they can easily swap out themselves, just as an able-bodied person would change shoes. This is not possible with current prostheses. In addition to the fact that the user does not have access to different feet, the user is also unable to swap the feet out themselves due to technical limitations.