With new leg, he’s walking into a new life

Days after Lubin Alcocer received a prosthetic leg from the Hanger Clinic off Randolph Road, he was walking so well it was difficult to tell he was wearing a prosthesis.

Soon, he began trekking a mile a day on foot to the library and back from his sister’s house in Davidson, where he stayed for six months while receiving medical care.

In early February, Alcocer walked onto a plane to Nicaragua, with his new leg and plans for a new life, which included playing soccer when he got home.

“He has the will and the intelligence to succeed,” said Brad Threatt, who is married to Alcocer’s sister Irania and works as a translator in the Mecklenburg County Public Defender’s Office. “The help he’s received here will definitely lighten his load.

“We hope for the best.”

Alcocer, 32, ran off a rural road in Nicaragua during a blinding rainstorm in 2010. He lost control of the car and hit a power pole after a tractor-trailer veered too close in the oncoming lane.

His father and a friend, who were in the car with him, died.

Alcocer stumbled into the rain to get help and inadvertently grabbed a downed power line. The electrocution caused internal bleeding and infection, and doctors amputated his right leg above the knee and part of his left foot.

Alcocer had worked as a butcher and carpenter in Rivas, a town in southwestern Nicaragua. He said he had been establishing a secure life with a good job in hopes of starting a family.

Threatt describes the medical care in Nicaragua as “archaic at best,” and said programs for amputees are directed toward people who have lost limbs to war-era land mines.

Alcocer lost his jobs, became depressed and got around his neighborhood on a lowered bicycle that he could push with his foot.

“I thought that my life was over and I would never walk again,” Alcocer said recently through a translator.

Unknown to Alcocer, his life was about to change.

One day at work, Threatt ran into Karen Piro, a former Mecklenburg County public defender who was finishing up cases because she now works at the Hanger Clinic. Piro is an amputee herself. After doctors diagnosed cancer in her leg while she was pregnant with her third child in 2010, Piro had her leg amputated below the knee.

Threatt asked Piro if she could help his brother-in-law. She could.

A group of Charlotte doctors, including certified prosthetic/orthotist Mike Jenks of the Hanger Clinic and physiatrist Shannon Kanelos, secured Alcocer a medical visa to receive medical care. Hanger would provide the prosthetics, therapy and medical care for free.

Six months after arriving in Charlotte, Alcocer proudly showed off his prosthetic leg and his natural walking gait. He chose a fire design for the outside of the socket, where his stump fits in the prosthetic, as a connection to the electrocution that changed his life.

The leg was specially designed for comfort, easy maintenance and high activity. Jenks taught Alcocer how to make his own adjustments because medical professionals in Nicaragua likely will not use the same technology.

Jenks said he’s been impressed with how quickly Alcocer learned to walk. The leg, Jenks believes, gave Alcocer hope and focus for a future of normalcy and independence.

“He was so diligent and hardworking,” Jenks said. “Anything we told him, he took it to heart and worked at it again and again.”

As for Alcocer, his car crash and time in Charlotte have altered the course of his life. He wants to learn English and work in the tourism industry.

He dreams of returning to the United States, where he sees more opportunity.

“I thank God that he gave me a chance to meet all these people who have helped me,” Alcocer said. “I’m looking forward to getting back to a normal life... and I’m grateful for how they took care of me.”