Perseverance With a Prosthesis: Jabin's Story

More than 185,000 surgical amputations are performed each year.

Jabin, a 19-year-old patient from North Pole, Alaska, was in a serious car accident in August 2019. His left foot was severely injured in the crash, and the doctors who treated him in Alaska tried for a month to save his foot from amputation. However, after a month, Jabin and his medical team ultimately decided the best path forward would be below-the-knee amputation of his foot and calf.

Jabin heard about Shriners Children's when the Shriners Children's Spokane team visited Alaska for an outreach clinic. Jabin needed a prosthetic leg, and he knew that Shriners Children's Spokane was the place to get it. He received his prosthetic leg from the Pediatric Orthotic and Prosthetic Services (POPS) team there. He then moved to Minnesota, where he also received an additional new prosthetic leg from the POPS team at Shriners Children's Twin Cities. Jabin has moved around the country and is now in the greater Philadelphia area. He receives care close to his current home at Shriners Children's Philadelphia.

With its mission to provide medical care to children regardless of the families' ability to pay or insurance status, Shriners Children's has over 100 access points, including hospitals and clinics, both domestically and internationally.

Sarah Nossov, M.D., lower extremity surgeon, is one of the members of Jabin's current medical team. Dr. Nossov has traveled to the outreach clinic in Alaska to assist with the Shriners Children's Spokane team. That's where she first met Jabin. Often, outreach clinics are held internationally, but the system hosts U.S.-based outreach clinics to serve those with specialty needs in areas where Shriners Children's might not be located. Shriners Children's is committed to bringing care closer to families throughout our region and connecting with referring providers.

According to Dr. Nossov, “Dr. Tompkins from Spokane had been following Jabin for a while, watching him thrive in his use of his prosthesis, and introduced me to him when I was working in the Fairbanks clinic. It was amazing to be able to conveniently expand his team to continue to help him as his life evolved on the East Coast!”

Because of the care Jabin received, he wanted to ensure he could keep receiving treatment from our team regardless of where he lived.

Now that Jabin is receiving care at Shriners Children's Philadelphia, he travels there for routine checkups on his leg with Dr. Nossov. He also sees Luis, a practitioner from the POPS team, who makes adjustments to his prosthetic as needed. In terms of his quality of care at Shriners Children's, he said it has been "amazing!"

In Jabin's free time, he enjoys playing basketball and football. He does not let his prosthetic stop him from being a star on the court and field. He said that playing with a prosthetic was "definitely an adjustment, but I got used to it." Now, he is a sophomore at Vision Baptist College in New Jersey, where he studies in a student ministry program to become a youth pastor.