Madi

Salt Lake City

Occupation

Residential Director at Sunrise RTC

Technology

Partial Hand Point Digit Prosthesis

Handspring Hero Since

2023

The User Perspective

from the point of view of Madison Watts

written by Linda Calabria

In her self-proclaimed “Sourdough Era”, Madison Watts, or Madi to her friends, caught up with me on a hot Friday morning in late August. She was getting ready to head out the door to help with an event that brought families out to the facility she works at for a parent event.

Madison grew up in Saint George, Utah near Zion National Park and got a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

If you look up Saint George, Utah, one of the prompts that comes up is “What is so special about Saint George?” and you quickly realize that it is a haven for outdoor enthusiasts with several state and national parks, hiking trails, and other attractions that focus on the region's breathtaking natural beauty. It is then no surprise that Madison loves to be outdoors and continues to work on getting back to doing things she loves, like climbing.

Madison has been working at a residential treatment center for the last five years. The center focuses on adolescents from the ages of 13-18 and utilizes dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT, as a type of psychotherapy that helps people learn to manage their emotions and improve their relationships. She makes sure to emphasize that these are not “troubled teens” but rather individuals who need help learning how to cope and self-regulate. Perhaps this sort of approach, of knowing how to deal with difficult emotions, has helped Madi herself throughout the last year of her life.

On a September afternoon, while taking part in some field games at work, Madison unfortunately suffered the loss of her thumb on what was otherwise a wonderful day for the youth that had gotten together outside.

“It was last September and I had begged my executive director to put on a celebration and do something fun with the students and she got bounce houses, water slides, and planned other amazing activities outdoors like three legged races and a tug of war. We used a climbing rope, and they put loops in the rope to grab on to. As soon as everyone started pulling, I felt like my wrist was breaking. I yelled for everyone to stop and fell to the ground. I looked down at my hands and started counting my fingers and realized my thumb was missing and told everyone to look for my thumb. So yeah…don’t use a climbing rope in tug of war.”

Madison had to take an ambulance to the local hospital, which ended up not having a hand surgeon so she was life flighted to Vegas where she had surgery the next day to close up the wound, as they could not save her thumb. What transpired next, is not completely out of the ordinary and a hurdle many face.

“After I had surgery, the doctor just discharged me and didn’t give me any information on what to do next, so I just went back to Saint George and started OT about a month later. I think I’m just the luckiest girl because my OT had never dealt with a partial hand amputee so he began to research every single option for me as I was still in shock after the accident and didn’t know what to think or what to do and didn’t know how to research things or who to ask.”

Many partial hand amputees may encounter the question of being a toe to finger candidate, but Madison did not meet the criteria, and felt like she may not have wanted that option anyway. They also explored passive silicone options but with her active lifestyle, it didn’t fit the need or requirements.

What Stands Out

Madison reflects that throughout this experience, she has gained a tremendous amount of gratitude for her support system, community, and family. She also recognized quickly that she could not go it alone and shares, “What I would highly advocate for is therapy. After a trauma like this, I immediately texted a person I used to work with who used to be a therapist and asked if she knew someone who could help me get through this because I knew it was going to get dark and I didn’t want to let that suck me in. She offered to help me herself and we immediately started doing EMDR, which is a trauma processing therapy, and it helps you reconnect with the trauma and lets your brain actually process it because in the moment your brain isn’t processing due to the shock. I truly think that EMDR was the most beneficial thing for me to help me regulate myself and be able to live my life.”

As we get deeper into some of the challenges new partial hand amputees face, she shares she wishes she had something like this Partial Hand Guide to help her understand what the options are, what to consider, and what to expect. Like many others in a similar situation to hers, while she had a great support network, she felt very alone and didn’t know anyone that knew how to truly help or relate to her.

At this point she is trying to start up her own amputee support system in Saint George, as one currently does not exist. She has even tried working with a national organization and become certified as a mentor, but they are making it difficult for her to join as they feel there will be bias based on her partnership with Point Designs. When she did go to the Amputee Coalition earlier this year, she finally felt seen and truly realized that she is not alone.

We begin to discuss how difficult it is, currently, for anyone thrown into this world to find out what the journey looks like. The manufacturers out there are known within the market, but to those who experience trauma and had never had to think about being an amputee, there is no easy way to get answers.

As we continue peeling back the onion and discuss how she found the right prosthetist for her, Madison shares, “With my OT’s help, we landed on Point Designs after reviewing all the options out there and understanding which option not only actually worked with my level of loss but also looked badass and was very functional. So, with his help we decided to reach out to Point Designs and then find a prosthetist who fit their devices. At first I was going to go to a local facility but unfortunately the right CP that I would need to see only came down occasionally, and so I went up to Salt Lake, which is like 4 hours away, and went to Handspring, and my prosthetists were Megan Hodgson and Tim Bump. They are truly amazing and good people and helped me review all my options before settling on the Point Designs solution.”

As Madison explains, this reality of not having the right level of care nearby is also a reality many face. It is highly encouraged to look around at all the options out there and ask about the expertise on the team, knowing what the reimbursement and insurance process will look like, and seeing if there is a real connection, as this team of clinicians will become your team for a very long time.

As Madison shared that she continues to take the 4 hour trip to Handspring as the level of care she received there is what was paramount to her. “Tim and the team are so precise and are so good at listening to you and making sure that they are getting everything right that I am so grateful that I got so lucky. I trust them so much. Honestly, even if I moved away, and I know it’s not feasible for everyone, but I know I wouldn’t want to go to anyone else. They’re my team! BUT, if I had to find someone new, I would do research and even interview prosthetists and make sure I am comfortable with them and understood exactly how they will work with me.”

Maddi's Advice

Before she headed off to help at the family event and go off on a weekend of hanging out with friends and trying to rock climb for the first time since her accident, she shared some final thoughts that she hopes will help others, “I think there’s just not much awareness when it comes to partial hand amputation and many people do not get any support after the amputation and are simply sent home without a plan or solution or are told there’s not much that can be done. I just think that when people are going through this, they cannot accept those types of options and have to continue to research and reach out to people.”