What is the price you would pay for your mobility? After having 30+ surgeries, over 2 years in the hospital and enduring months of endless antibiotics I recently became an above knee amputee. BASIC prosthetics in Alberta are somewhat covered unless you need a computerized prosthetic joint like a knee. The rules regarding prosthetic coverage were made long before robotics and computers entered the industry and therefore they are not covered and there is no appeals process for amputees to present their case. Computerized prosthetics have been well documented to improve the mobility and long term health of amputees and are standard of care in many countries around the world. Amputees can be productive members of society, there are amputee fire fighters, doctors, nurses, RCMP officers and so on.

For example a prosthetic computerized knee costs out of pocket 50,000 to 80,000 dollars . The steep price reflects the primary market of the USA, as private coverage there has deemed computerized prosthetics as standard of care and are easily covered. Private insurance in Canada at most pays 10,000K dollars every 6 years. Our health care system spent over a million dollars trying to preserve my mobility when my leg was still attached and now that its gone my mobility has become of no value. I argue my mobility is very valuable as a hard working, tax paying, active member of our community. Other amputees as well.

I need a computerized knee to walk. I have too much damage to the muscles left to walk without one. I have worked as a veterinarian here in Grande Prairie since 2017 and can't return to work in a wheel chair. Veterinarians are in very short supply up here and I need to get back to practicing and supporting not only the employees of the clinic I work at, but the pet loving community here as well. I have been out of work since May 2020. As one of the few full time local veterinarians in the city my absence is detrimental to the area and has caused decreased availability of veterinary care  for residents.

This petition will accompany a letter to advocate for amputees in the province of Alberta to have the ability to access and appeal for computerized/microprocessor prosthetics. Bring Alberta out of the dark ages of prosthetics and into the modern world.