- Irene Moina
- BBC News NI
The 29-year-old man, from Dungiven, County Londonderry, said spinal cord stimulation therapy had given him a new start in life.
Ryan O'Connor is one of three amputees in Northern Ireland to have been fitted with a spinal cord stimulator.
He had both his legs amputated 11 years ago, but walking with his prosthetic legs became too painful and he was forced to give it up.
Spinal cord stimulation sends small electrical impulses to the spinal cord.
It helps block pain signals from traveling to the brain.
Ryan said he had been unable to walk for about two years due to pain, but since getting a spinal cord stimulator fitted in April, his life has changed dramatically and he feels like he is starting over.
“It's been life-changing for me because my legs are back to normal, I can use them more, I can do more things, and I can even go to the gym because of the stimulation. I’ve felt great ever since,” he told BBC News NI.
He was born with a heart condition and required a heart transplant at the age of 18.
A few days after the transplant in November 2012, he went into cardiac arrest.
The lack of blood flow to his legs caused the calf muscles to die, resulting in both legs having to be amputated.
In addition to the transplant, cardiac arrest and double amputation, he also suffered an aneurysm and a brain hemorrhage, all within a matter of weeks.
“Everything happened at once, so everything was like 'go, go, go,'” Ryan said.
“When I had the transplant, my life changed.
“My life changed when I lost my leg.
“And now that I have it, [spinal cord] I was given stimulants, things changed again, but everything got better.”
In April 2013, Ryan was fitted with a prosthetic limb at Belfast's Musgrave Park Hospital.
“After a few months, I started getting used to the prosthesis and have been working on my new prosthesis ever since. [are] “The one I'm using now is called C-leg 4,” he said.
“Not having a knee helps me walk better. Basically, if I wear trousers, no one will notice I have a prosthetic leg, because the knee is there to show that I can walk normally.”
Gavin Campbell, prosthetics manager at Musgrave Park Hospital's amputee rehabilitation centre, said Ryan had tried many different types of prosthesis, from “short sockets with very few components” to “very simple and lightweight components”.
But as Ryan gets stronger, “we could start to make things a little more complicated for him,” he added.
Gavin said prosthetics had changed a lot over the years and the service was looking to get additional funding to offer more choice to patients.
“Walking with two prosthetic limbs is very difficult, so you need all the help a prosthetic limb can provide.”
While Ryan says his current prosthetic leg is the best, he had to stop using it for several years due to thigh pain.
Rehabilitation medicine consultant Lorraine Graham focused on finding the cause of his pain and finding a treatment for it.
At first, drugs didn't work, so she referred Ryan to a pain specialist who considered using a spinal cord stimulator, a relatively new method of relieving pain.
“The spinal cord stimulator has made the most amazing difference for Ryan, opening up the possibility of him being able to stand and walk again with a prosthetic limb,” she said.
“He is still young and has a lot of life ahead of him and the potential to improve his strength and become even more ambulatory.
“Ryan's future looks very bright.”
“It feels more normal.”
Ryan now enjoys nights out with his siblings and friends and hopes to get into the film and TV industry.
“I feel more confident in my legs and more normal,” he said.
“When I stand up, I feel like I'm standing on my own two feet.
“It doesn't matter to me if they're prosthetics or not, they're still mine.”
