No leg? Teen's view is 'so what?'

SOUTH JORDAN -- He wakes up before the sun rises to run down quiet streets, intent on keeping his body strong.

He glides down powder-covered mountains in the cold winter months - - snowboarding not only for fun but because he is determined.

Chris Smith pumps iron, bikes eight to 10 miles and completes a daily regimen of pushups and sit-ups to strengthen his muscles and build endurance.

For Smith, all of this grueling work pays off when he slaps a hockey puck down the ice rink with the Bingham High School hockey team.

Yet hockey is more than just exercise for the high school senior, it is his passion.

"I love to walk out of the locker rooms after the game wearing shorts, and everyone is like, 'You're the one with no leg,' " he said. "No one can tell it's me when we're out there playing."

Smith is not only the sole member of his high school hockey team who has had a leg amputated, he is also one of the youngest members of the American Amputee Hockey Association.

The 18-year-old is the only member of the AAHA in Utah, which means he must motivate himself to train for the first World Championship Standing Disabled Hockey Tournament, beginning Friday and continuing through May 3 in Finland

But for Chris Smith, life has not always been so agreeable.

He was forced to make a life-altering decision at an age when most boys only have food and girls on their minds.

On Aug. 25, 2001, Smith, then 16, received an invitation to try the relatively new sport of street luging. He did not have a moment's hesitation before jumping onto a 7-foot-long metal skateboard-like contraption and began zooming feet-first more than 75 mph down a winding road on Draper's South Mountain.

When he tried to stop, though, the board began to slide sideways until his leg slammed into a guardrail.

Smith felt immense pain but just figured he had broken something.

"I looked at my hands and I didn't see anything, and then I looked down at my ankle and it was pointing the wrong way. I couldn't figure out why I couldn't move my toes, and then I saw my bone sticking out of my leg," he said. "I knew I was pretty messed up."

The decision

His friends called an ambulance. Within minutes Smith was on a helicopter en route to the University Medical Center. Orthopedic surgeons began to re-attach his right ankle, which was only hanging on by the Achilles tendon, and fuse the femur bone sticking out of his thigh.

"You'd much rather get hurt yourself than watch your child go through that, it's a really hard thing," said his father, Dan Smith. "He was in so much pain."

Recovery was not easy. After 11 weeks and numerous surgeries, it became evident that Smith's leg would never be the same. One option would be another surgery, one that would shorten his leg by an inch in order to fuse the bone and give his ankle a minimal rotation. Not to mention, it would leave him with possibly a year of rehabilitation and even more corrective surgeries.

The teen was then told he needed to make a decision.

He weighed his options, made a list of pros and cons and prayed. Soon, without a doubt in his mind, he made his decision.

He chose to have his right leg amputated at mid-calf.

Smith figured this option would give him the most normal life possible, and that he would be able to learn to live without his leg.

'Special one'

Even though his story is tragic, the heart-wrenching only lasts until one sees Smith leap up a set of stairs with a smile on his face and crack an amputee joke.

Chris Smith is one of "the special ones," a physical therapy nurse told his mother. "We never forget the special ones."

He never feels sorry for himself and never underestimates the power of determination.

The season before his accident, his high school hockey team recruited him for his Rollerblading skills. Smith immediately fell in love with the sport, saying his only regret was that his parents had not started him in hockey earlier.

One season was not enough hockey for Smith though, and soon after his accident he became antsy to play again.

Only weeks before receiving his prosthetic leg, his hockey team sent him tickets to a Utah Grizzlies hockey game. He was spotlighted on the Jumbo-Tron, where he smiled and waved his stump at the camera. The announcer read: "Chris is truly an inspiration. His positive attitude is having a profound influence on the lives of all his friends and family. If you ask Chris how he's doing, he'll say, 'Great, I'm going to play hockey with my team next season!' "

Smith kept his word; he was not finished with hockey quite yet.

At his first physical therapy appointment, he walked into the doctor's office without crutches.

"He told me I was the fastest-walking amputee he had ever seen," Smith said. "It only took me one month to start walking and then three months to get back on the ice."

Smith first stepped on the ice to drop the ceremonial puck at the 2002 Winter Paralympic Games for an exhibition game between the USA and Canadian standing disabled hockey teams, and there he learned about the American Amputee Hockey Association.

The AAHA is an organization for amputees who are interested in competing at international levels. This disabled hockey division is set apart by the fact that all the players stand upright, rather than sitting on sleds.

The AAHA and other national amputee teams are currently working toward making the event a Paralympic sport for the 2006 games, in which Smith hopes to participate. They need two successful international competitions and at least eight countries to participate before the game becomes a Paralympic sport.

No limits

Smith learned quickly to not set limitations on himself. He recalls the day after receiving his first prosthetic leg. He walked into the theater to see "The Lord of the Rings." Even though he had been told to use crutches for the next four months, he was determined to take advantage of the leg.

"It's really weird, it feels like you are walking on stilts on one side," he said. "And it still felt like my foot was there for about three months afterwards."

Many amputees, like Smith, have phantom pains. Their body's nerves do not correctly communicate with the brain, and the amputee feels as though he still has the limb.

"Chris' toes on his right foot felt like they were curled up in a charley horse for a long time, even though there's no foot there," his father said. "We tried a lot of different tricks, like holding a mirror between his legs and making him bend the toes on his left foot. For some reason it makes the brain think it's his right foot that's moving, and it relieved some of the pain."

Many of Smith's friends, schoolmates and even his own family had a hard time adjusting to his new appearance.

"It creeped my little sisters out at first, and the little kids took some adjusting," he said. "I still have to show them how it works sometimes, but they've all adjusted really well and are cool with it now. They've been really supportive through everything."

His mother, Judy, said her son's positive attitude and sense of humor are what pulled the family through the accident. It even pulled the family closer together and helped them realize how much they mean to each other.

Smith said his accident also changed the way he views life.

"It made me face decisions a lot quicker than I would before, and in some ways it made me a little more mature. Not saying I'm mature or anything, I mean some of the pranks we play . . . ," he said.

Smith and his friends use their movie-making group, Knuckleheads, to film practical jokes, most of which involve Smith's leg. Some of the pranks include Smith walking around with his prosthetic on backward, or taking it off so his friends can ask people if they've seen the boy that belongs to the prosthetic leg. He even asked a girl to the Christmas Dance by putting the leg on her porch with a note that read: "I'd give my right leg if you'd go to the dance with me."

"We made a peg-leg out of one of my old prosthetics, and I won a pirate contest with it at (radio station) X96 to win tickets to the Warp Tour," he said. "I was the only one with a real peg-leg."

Not only did Smith heal fast physically, but he also healed well emotionally and socially. He only attended two of his eight scheduled weeks of physical therapy, and never used the six weeks of scheduled psychological counseling.

"His attitude was that's for sick people," his father said. "He wasn't down about it because he had made the decision on his own, and he knew life moves on. He'll tell you attitude is everything."

Other goals

Smith said that a lot of people treated him differently after he lost his leg.

"Hardly anybody who notices my leg looks me in the eye afterward, they always look away," he said. "I wish they would just say, 'Hey, cool leg,' or ask me what happened."

Smith is just like any other high school senior, in more ways than one, say some of his friends and family. Yet that does not keep him from achieving other goals.

While preparing to get accepted at Brigham Young University, where he wants to major in mechanical engineering, Smith has worked hard to earn two scholarships for overcoming diversity.

"I would say that he feels a renewed desire to help others," said Smith's LDS seminary principal and teacher David Brown. "He sure did that a lot in my class."

Smith shares his experience with others, not to show off, but to teach what he has learned through his hardship, he said.

"If he can say or do something to help others overcome their challenges, he is very willing to do that," Brown said.

Smith has also been working a part-time job at the International House of Pancakes in Murray to earn money for his trip to the hockey competition in Finland.

"When our new store (location) was opened, we wanted him here because everyone loves working with him," said Claudia Orozco, assistant manager. "He does a great job; he's absolutely a good employee and a really good kid."

Last month, IHOP sponsored a night for Smith. Twenty percent of all the restaurant's sales with sponsor cards were donated to offset his expenses for the competition. Many neighbors, relatives and friends came to show their support.

With all this on his plate, Smith is always trying to keep in good shape, for the AAHA and his other athletic interests. He runs, bikes, snowboards and works out. He plays with the Bingham hackey-sack club.

"Other people underestimate the things that I can do," Smith said. "The only limitations are the ones you set for yourself."

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