California Firefighter William Glenn Malmskog refused to let his leg amputation keep him from firefighting, and despite medical complications in 2002, he was back on duty with the Arrowbear Lake Fire Department last year as the area was ravaged by some of the worst wildfires in recent history. Now he wants to help other amputee firefighters get their lives back, as well.
Malmskog's story is one of perseverance and belief in the so called "impossible."
The day after his right leg was amputated below the knee, he was doing pull-ups from a trapeez over his hospital bed. As soon as he got his first prosthetic leg he was running on the beach, something that should have been physically impossible. And two days after he got his second prosthetic leg, he went hiking for 11 miles in the Grand Canyon.
Even after a temporary prosthetic test socket gave out while he was flagging escape routes during last year's Southern California firestorm, Malmskog got up and finished the job by hopping.
But one of his most meaningful achievements has been the formation of the Amputee Firefighter Association, a network of amputee firefighters who offer each other peer counseling and if they wish, support in getting their jobs back. They currently have 20 members, about half of whom have returned to duty or are pursuing their jobs.
"This is something firefighters are already familiar with - mutual aid," Malmskog said.
Malmskog started out in the fire service as a volunteer firefighter and EMT in Texas when he was in high school, and then became a full time firefighter and paramedic instructor. He later went into law enforcement, and then stopped to go to college.
While studying and volunteering, Malmskog also got involved in doing stunt work for a film being made in the Dallas area, because of his experience with martial arts and weapons. He was soon doing stunt work full time on a number of projects, which led to the injury and eventual amputation of his lower right leg.
"How I lost it is kind of embarassing actually - I was run over by a 300 pound actor," Malmskog said. He was working as a stuntman on the set of "Once Upon A Time In China 6," starring Jet Li, when he was injured in 1997. As he and a very heavy actor were running through a blinding whirlwind of dust, the actor stepped into Malmskog, their legs got tangled and they fell, with the 300 pound actor coming down on top of his knee.
Malmskog knew the injury was bad but insisted on finishing his death scene before going to the hospital. His leg was like a limp noodle, but with the help of a knee brace, duct tape, and a second rigid knee brace on top, he finished out his bloody shooting death on a vegetable cart.
Malmskog wouldn't go down that easy in real life.
After a long, frustrating and painful attempt to save the leg, his surgeon recommended amputation in the summer of 1999. "I sat there for a minute and looked at him like he was smoking crack," Malmskog said.
Unfortunately, bone spurs had formed due to 20 months of inactivity forced by Worker's Compensation rules. The Workers Comp. program also did not allow for sufficient physical therapy, Malmskog said. After being released from Workers Comp. Malmskog's bone spurs broke apart when he returned to running and karate, shredding his ankle beyond repair. He could barely walk 10-20 feet before having to sit down in pain.
"For somebody like me that was like a death sentence," he said. Amputation was the only way to restore 90 percent of his mobility and end the pain.
He thought about it for months until circumstances jolted him into action.
He was walking through a parking lot with his little daughter when she darted into the path of a car. He tried to lunge and grab her but his leg wouldn't allow him. Luckily his daughter wasn't injured, "But it totally freaked me out," Malmskog said. He made his decision.
He had the amputation surgery in March 2000 in Dallas.
"You'd think an amputation would be extremely painful, but compared to the pain I had been through, it was actually a relief," he said.
When Malmskog got his first prosthetic leg, he tried explaining to the maker that he needed to get back to running and firefighting, and was told, "No no, you need realistic goals." His reaction was, "those are realistic goals for me." Malmskog walked out on his new leg with his crutches over his shoulder, and the following day was running and playing frisbee on the beach.
He later got a better prosthetic leg, the one that he used to hike the Grand Canyon. This leg was great for walking, but he still needed something lighter and more responsive for running, and with more energy return. He got what he needed from a prosthetic company called Ossur, a lightweight carbon fiber prosthetic called the VSP, which he now he uses for everyday and wildland firefighting. In addition, he has a Talux prosthetic, also made of carbon fiber, with a reactive ankle that he uses structure fires.
"I took off running down the hallway and it was like a rocket pack, the leg almost outran me," Malmskog said.
Switching to this leg took three minutes off his mile run, and allowed him to leg press 1500 pounds.
Malmskog said that along with maintaining excellent physical condition, the most important thing an amputee can do is find the right match between person and prosthetic. In addition to the physical benefits, it gives confidence. He knows his leg can support him, his gear and another person, and that it can withstand fire conditions far better than the human body.
"This is a leg I trust my life to," he said. "If we have to bail out on a fire line, this leg will get me back to the safety zone. It will also take the load if I have to carry out another firefighter."
When Malmskog moved to Arrowbear, California in the spring of 2001 he soon approached the fire chief about serving as a paid call firefighter.
"I said there's one little drawback you may want to be aware of," Malmskog said, and he showed the chief his leg. The chief said, "Honestly, can you do the job?" and Malmskog said "Yes."
Passing the physical requirements was not a problem.
Malmskog was already hiking 3.2 miles with the 35-pound wildland pack three days a week, well under the time limit, and was running once a week for eight miles.
Some of the firefighters were hesitant about accepting Malmskog but changed their minds after serving with him, he said. On the Louisiana fire that summer, he was carrying five hose packs as well as assisting one of the other firefighters as they were flashed over three times and then got flanked and had to pull out.
While waiting for a replacement for one of the other crew members, a crewmate told him, "I'll fight fire with you anywhere."
"That made me feel really, really good," Malmskog said.
However, more setbacks lay ahead for Malmskog. By the end of 2002 the bone in his stump had grown and needed further surgery. That surgery was botched when the doctor severed a vein and sloppily closed up his leg, and unable to use a prosthetic or walk any more, Malmskog was prescribed a wheelchair and pain medication. Litigation is underway, he said.
Mamlskog eventually found one doctor who said he could repair his stump and save his knee, and after fighting for months to get his insurance to cover it, he got the surgery in August 2003.
After a total of about one year in a wheelchair, in October 2003 Malmskog finally got fitted for a temporary new socket. He was meant to have it only for a short time, and was told that Friday, "Don't do anything crazy."
On Saturday morning, October 25, his entire fire company was called to respond to an aggressive fire that grew to almost 92,000 acres with flames up to 300 feet. This was part of the million acre fire storm that hit Southern Calfornia. No one in the area had dealt with fire this big, even the Arrowbear fire chief, who was also with the California Department of Forestry. They were in the middle of one of the worst wildfires to ravage southern California last year.
Despite his limited mobility, Mamlskog was determined to contribute to the firefighting efforts. As he walked into the fire station, "Having not walked in a year, every step it felt like someone was kicking me in the knee," he said. "My captain and my chief said, 'It's not gonna do any good to try to send you away, is it?'"
They assigned him to the position of PIO, but in addition to coordinating and giving out information on fire operations, he fulfilled whatever duties needed attention, such as relaying hose, doing inventory and putting away supplies. "I put that poor temporary leg through it's paces," Malmskog said.
On Halloween, the fire was making a huge advancement on the area and his department needed someone to mark escape routes. Malmskog went out to post flagging along the escape route, and his temporary leg socket gave out. "There was just a big loud crack," he said. Malmskog explained that temporary sockets are made of lexan plastic because it is cheaper to make adjustments to these before creating permanent sockets made from carbon fiber, which will not break.
Malmskog fell backward on top of his wildland pack like a turtle, with his stump busted open and bleeding. But he got himself up and finished flagging the route by hopping, and then he drove 20 minutes to the other area that needed flagging and finished that one too.
He said a California Highway Police officer drove past and saw him in his yellow fire gear, hopping the street with his empty pant leg flapping in the breeze, and nearly ran off the road.
When Malmskog got back to his station he contacted Loma Linda Orthodics and Prosthetics with his emergency. "I said how fast can you make me a new leg?" They made it in in an unheard of two hours, and with the drive time included, Malmskog was back on duty with his new leg within three to four hours.
"I joked with the chief, how many firefighters you know can break their leg and be back in three to four hours?" Malmskog said.
Malmskog said he often makes light of his situation, and one winter convinced his boss at a ropes course that he teaches, that his cosmetic foot was real and had serious frostbite. He said his boss almost had a heart attack because his foot was so cold and waxy looking. "Having a twisted sense of humor really helps," he said.
Malmskog started looking for other firefighter amputees after coming onboard the Arrowbear Lake Fire Department. He first found one in Florida, then another in San Diego. Later, through online contacts, he heard about more.
At the end of November 2001, a battalion chief in L.A. called his chief to ask if it was practical to have an amputee firefighter. After speaking with Malmskog and his department, the chief pulled his amputee firefighter out of dispatch and placed him back on active duty.
"When that happened it just dawned on me - wow, I'm setting precedent here," Malmskog said. He realized he could help other amputee firefighters and started aggressively networking.
He next found a firefighter in Idaho who had just lost a limb. "First thing I did I called the hospital. He was still in recovery," Malmskog said. He spoke to the firefighter's wife, who was thrilled, and she insisted that he speak to her husband. The firefighter later went back on duty.
"It gave his wife hope, it gave him hope, and it gave a man back to his department," Malmskog said.
"With that experience I went into overdrive," he said, and he continued contacting amputee firefighters through the Amputee Coalition of America and other online connections. One firefighter that he contacted in Michigan was just re-instated to his job on Saturday.
Malmskog decided to get them all organized last summer. "I said we have to get a unified voice - if there's five, 10, 15 or 20 of us, you can't ignore that, and the fact that we can return to duty," he said. Not wanting to run a 501c3 business, he set up the Amputee Firefighter Association under the Amputee Coalition of America.
The effort became a passion, and the group has grown to 20 firefighters with either arm or leg amputations. Some have retired, others have gotten their jobs back and some are pursuing their jobs. All of the origional members are fire or fire/EMS workers, but the association is open to all public safety workers. Some people are even finding them now, since an article about Malmskog's efforts appeared in inMotion magazine, for amputees.
Malmskog said that getting their firefighting jobs back is so meaningful because, "It's not what we do, it's who we are," he said. "These are people used to being on the line in the middle of chaos. You're going to put them on a desk job?"
Malmskog said the worst thing he sees is people telling a new amputee to take it easy. "You need to get p.o.'d about losing a limb and get your life back, while you still have good cardio and muscle tone," he said. That's why he was doing pull-ups on a trapeez over his hospital bed the day after his amputation. "That's what it takes, you have to be aggressive about maintaining physical condition," he said.
Malmskog is now fighting osteomyelitis, a bone infection, but plans to be back on duty in six to eight weeks and to work with the CDF this summer. He keeps two different prosthetic legs with him so that if one ever fails he can swap it out, and he carries spare components.
The other amputee firefighters have encountered a wide range of reactions from their fire departments, Malmskog said. He said larger departments seem to be more resistant to taking back the firefighters, even after they prove they can meet all of the physical requirements. Now firefighters who find themselves in this position are not alone.
Malmskog said that what he wants firefighters to know is that, "If you lose a limb, you can come back, and there is an organization to help you," he said.
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