Catching Up: Belleville boy active with prosthetic feet

May 26--Dawson Henry is running, jumping, climbing, playing with friends and getting ready for T-ball this summer.

That may not be unusual for a 5-year-old, but Dawson had his feet and ankles amputated last June. He's been wearing prostheses since January, getting more comfortable with them every day.

"It's much more advanced than we expected at this point," said his mother, Beth Henry, of Belleville.

Dawson's legs turned purple in May 2013 after a family trip to a Wisconsin Dells water park. By the time doctors treated him for purpura fulminans, a rare condition in which blood vessels clot and kill tissue, his feet were essentially dead, his UW Health surgeon said.

In addition to the amputations, doctors took skin from Dawson's back and grafted it onto the remaining parts of his legs.

This year, after spending two weeks at American Family Children's Hospital learning how to use his prostheses, Dawson started wearing them to 4-K in the mornings, his mother said. The past few weeks, he's also been wearing them at day care in the afternoons.

At home or elsewhere, he sometimes wears the prostheses, sometimes uses a wheelchair and sometimes crawls or walks on his knees, Beth Henry said.

The artificial legs were fitted by Amy Paulios, of Prosthetic Laboratories in Monona. Paulios said Dawson likely will need new prostheses every 12 to 18 months as he grows.

Wearing the prostheses hasn't made Dawson reluctant to play, his mother said. The other day, she saw him play a game involving tackling. "I had to ask myself, 'Would I let him play this if he didn't have prostheses?' I have to rein myself in and say, 'it's OK.' "

She has been back to work, at Epic Systems Corp. in Verona, part time since October and full time since March. Her husband, David, works at Midwest Alarm Services.

Their insurance covered most of Dawson's medical costs, but they had to pay some of the bills for the prostheses, the wheelchair and a walker. Fundraisers by family, friends and in nearby communities helped offset the costs and Beth Henry's loss of income, she said.

"We're so grateful for the community response," she said.

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