BUFFALO, N.Y. — On April 23, 2022, James Serafin’s life changed and he still has mixed feelings about it.

"It’s been a much longer journey than I think I initially thought it would be," said Serafin, a man from Hamburg who lost a limb. "I thought I would be able to kind of power through it and figure out living a new way of life but it’s a marathon. Not a sprint."

What You Need To Know

  • Limb loss occurs when a person lacks an extremity, while limb difference occurs when a part of the body is not shaped normally

  • According to the Amputee Coalition, more than 5.6 million Americans live with limb loss or limb difference

  • April is not only a month to raise awareness, but also to show how people with limb loss or limb difference continue to thrive

On that day, he was in a motorcycle accident in Pittsburgh. His leg was so severely broken that it cut his femoral artery, and his doctors had to amputate his leg. He says it was a learning process to try to do things with one leg, especially while his other leg was also broken. 

"Before I got out of the hospital, they had me transfer from the bed to the wheelchair, and then the wheelchair down onto the floor to get up and down a flight of stairs," Serafin said.

When he got back, he started to research osseointegration. Theresa Liffiton, a physical therapist at Erie County Medical Center, says it’s the process of applying a prosthesis directly to the bone. 

"It has been described that the socket feels like putting your leg into a bucket, and then you're going to try to control your foot and knee with that bucket and that bucket-to-skin interface with axial integration," Liffiton said. "Now you attach your prosthesis directly to the long bone."

James underwent two surgeries at ECMC and was among the first few people from the hospital to get the OPRA Implant System. He says the process of healing was painful but worth it.

"The good outcome is I can stand eight hours a day," Serafin said. "I go to work. Like pretty much I wake up in the morning, I put the leg on and the leg comes off when I go to bed at night."

It’s been two years, but he still has phantom pain in his leg. He says it feels like his ankle is displaced. A battery pack-like machine sends an electrical signal up the sciatic nerve to help with the pain.

"In the beginning, it used to be kneecap [and] calf," he said. "The back of my calf was on fire, the front of my shin getting hit with a sledgehammer."

Serafin says the key through his journey was remaining hopeful, positive, and, as judging by his shirt collection, he kept a sense of humor. 

"There's all these things in life to look forward to," he added. "And, yeah, I lost a leg. But at this point, it's just a leg. There's still challenges that come with it, but we'll figure it out and we'll get through it."

To learn more about limb loss and limb difference, click here.