Certified Prosthetists Greg Doerr and Manny Rivera co-founded Premier Prosthetics and Orthotics with a vision to do what they know best: take care of their patients and have a direct impact on their quality of life by providing the highest level of convenience and care. The practice has continued to further this vision since opening its doors in 2009, changing the lives of patients like amputee Angelina Boulicault.
Angelina, 26, was born in Russia with clubfoot and fibular hemimelia, a birth defect in which all or part of the fibular bone is missing. “My foot was turned in and had seven toes on it, and my shin bone was not growing,” she says. She was given up for adoption due to her birth defects and put in an orphanage, where she didn’t receive proper treatment for the first four years of her life.
Fortunately, Angelina was adopted by an American couple and brought to the U.S., where she finally received treatment for her leg, amputated just below the knee. “My parents were determined that I not wear the label of ‘disabled,’ so they signed me up for every sport possible for a 5-year-old with a prosthetic leg.”
But she found the prosthetics she was given limiting. “I kept thinking they had to be better made,” she recalls. “I had the energy to do all of these things, but my leg was holding me back.”
The target of bullying in middle school, Angelina founded an organization in high school called Adaptive Amputees to reach out to and advocate for other amputees. She gave motivational speeches and organized meet-ups for fellow amputees.
Before relocating to St. Louis, Angelina had bounced around to various prosthetic companies for years. Most of them tried to push the highest-end devices, even if they weren’t the best fit. “I was given a hydraulic ankle with a vacuum pump that added a ton of weight to my leg,” she says. “My knee was carrying all that weight, so I was having a lot of knee problems. Doctors were talking about a revision surgery to further amputate above the knee, and I thought there had to be a better solution.”
Determined to find a good clinician who could solve her problem without another surgery, she made an appointment with Premier Prosthetics and met with ABC-certified prosthetist and pedorthotist Matt Ruengert.
“He listened to everything I needed and wanted,” she says. “I told him surgery was not an option, and he came up with a great solution for me. I’ve been on a leg that Premier Prosthetics made for about four months, and I am completely pain-free. They got me an affordable device that works for me.”
Angelina continues to advocate to fellow amputees to get more than one opinion. “I was told I would need another amputation, and that was not the case,” she says. “These devices enable you. It’s a matter of getting the right fit and the right clinician and you can do anything you put your mind to. I love to hike and rock climb, and I don’t want to be told I can’t do those things. Matt listened and got me a leg that can keep up!”
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