Randy Alltizer has no shins and no feet. Both of his legs were amputated below the knee.

About a decade ago, Alltizer was diagnosed with adult early onset diabetes, and developed neuropathy, which meant he lost the feeling in his feet due to nerve damage from too much glucose in his system.

His first amputation was three years ago. Earlier this year, the same thing happened to his left leg.

Just weeks after his amputation, he was off walking without a cane, something his doctor told him he would never do. 

Alltizer has more than embraced his new identity as a double amputee and does it with a sense of humor.

“My son calls me stumpie," he said with a laugh.

Now, he makes time for anyone who has questions about amputation at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center. He does it on his own time because he says when he went through his surgeries, he had no idea what to expect.

“I had nobody to look at that could give me an idea about what was going to happen,” Alltizer said.

Because of the lack of information, the double-amputee decided to be that person for people about to go through amputation.

He's helped David Duncan, who recently had a toe amputated after a blister under a toe became infected. Duncan, who has had Type 2 Diabetes for 20 years, also suffers from neuropathy - a condition which means he has no feeling in his feet.

He says he knows losing a toe is just the start, “It’s inevitable, it’s going to get worse.”

So, Duncan decided to drive to Fountain Valley hospital to meet a man he doesn’t know. Alltizer spent at least an hour with Duncan talking to him about what his life is like after amputation.

Fountain Valley Regional Hospital’s Wound Care Director Valerie Sanden said more often than not, diabetics facing an amputation can opt-out of losing a limb - even though the patient knows the infection could spread and, “the risk of death is there."

She says that Alltizer's simple act of talking to people facing the critical decision of amputation is saving lives.

“Every time those patients have called us back and said, 'We’re looking at this differently now,'" Sanden explained.