Essay Sample on Physical Disabilities: Research on the Effect of Amputation

Introduction

Various disabilities in the world include physical, cognitive and mental disabilities. Physical disabilities may be congenital, amputation, and other sclerosis. Amputation involves removal of injured body parts. The body part may be removed due to trauma, surgery or prolonged condition. It may occur as an injury after war or accident and unlike some animals that can grow their body parts back such as starfish, human parts do not grow back once they are removed. In US, most of the amputations today occur due to vascular systems complications caused by diseases such as diabetes. This may result from an injury or a planned surgery for preventing the spread of a disease on the hand or other parts of the body.

Some of the amputated parts, for example, legs may be attached back into the body. Pinzur et al. (1667-1671) describes that an amputation occurs when the surgeon needs to remove the injured parts of the body. Before the surgery, the doctor examines the damage to the other part of the body. The area removed depends on the amount of damage. The surgeon closes the part to be amputated using skin and tendon from other parts of the body.

Losing a body part such as a hand that is visible causes emotional upset to the victim. Victims for amputations take time to accept the changes in their body and the ability to function. It is essential to talk about the feelings to get more advice on adapting to the situation. Watson (2008) shows the victims may also talk to other patients who also have the disability to understand on the best way of accepting the changes. Victims should remember that with time they would adapt to the changes and need to find new ways of carrying out daily activities such as eating, bathing and changing clothes. It is important for patient to be strong during the recovery process. Patients should understand that the quality of life is directly associated to the expectations and attitude towards any situation. A positive attitude and a hopeful feeling are expected in the recovery process.

According to Watson (2008), amputations on the hand have issues of accessing things, decrease coordination of eye-hand, endurance and physical stamina. The effect of amputation has an impact on the family members, friends and social life of the victim. The people close to an amputated person should ensure they support them in daily activities, for example, assist in cleaning and cooking. Family members and friends should ensure that when having a conversation with a person on the wheelchair, they should be on the same eye level. If the person needs assistance, it is necessary to ask if one may help and if they do not need assistance, this should be accepted graciously. There are possible side effects for amputation such as heterotopic ossification. This occurs when the bone injury affects the brain. The brain may signal the bone to grow rather than forming a scar tissue (American Society for Surgery of the Hand 2011).

According to Pinzur et al (1667-1671), these growths interfere with the prosthetics and force the victims to carry out another operation. There are areas that assist in development of skills in areas affected by disability, for example, joining organizations that enables amputees to step out and share their issues. The Amputee Coalition shows that in US about 500 new amputations occur daily and there is need to show these people that they are part of a large community. In April 2013, the Amputee coalition launched a mettle day for encouraging amputees all over the world. The public law (PL) offers education services are provided for children with disabilities with no added costs. The free appropriate public education ((FAPE) ensures that children with disabilities get essential services and education with no cost to the family.