Olympic track skier who lost leg to amputation lobbies for sports prosthetics for all Coloradans
In the gravity defying world of free skiing, 15-year-old David Schlicht of Steamboat Springs, was among the elite.
An Olympic track skier, he trained year around. In the summer months, he would use a massive airbag to cushion landings from 300 feet in the air. Two years ago, one of those bags broke free.
"I popped my skis off and was walking off, and the wind picked up and snapped the tethering system that kept the bag to the ground. And it blew up and dropped me straight to the ground, about 60, 65 feet."
Shattering his lower legs and his Olympic dreams. Over the course of six months, he would undergo 20 surgeries. In the end, doctors were unable to save his right foot.
He went from landing awe-inspiring tricks to learning to simply walk again.
The now 17-year-old says he always knew he would ski again too.
"I knew I would. That's just kind of me. I have a super positive outlook," he said.
Just eight months after the accident, he was back on the slopes, but was relegated to beginner runs.
It wasn't until he got a prosthetic engineered for skiing that he says he got his life back.
"Carving down runs doing 50 miles an hour...hitting rails, jumps, side hits," he said.
But if not for a grant from a nonprofit, none of it would be possible. Insurance doesn't cover sports prosthetics. Shaneis Kehoe plans to change that.
A prosthetic and orthotic clinician, she ran a mobility clinic for kids for two years.
"To see them excel, and then have to kind of switch back into the old foot at the end of the day, was frustrating," she said.
She left her practice to fight for legislation requiring insurers to cover sports prosthetics. Kehoe ran a fiscal analysis showing it would increase insurance premiums by less than ten cents a month.
She says the return on the investment is immeasurable in terms of both physical and emotional quality of life.
"By giving them the access up front, it's setting them up for success in the long term," she said.
When Kehoe and others with the Rocky Mountain Prosthetics and Orthotics Coalition ask Representative David Ortiz to carry the bill, he didn't hesitate.
"And I knew right away that it was a bill I wanted to champion," he expressed. "And I know the transformative power that adaptive sports have had in my life especially."
As a veteran, his sports wheelchair is covered by the military. His bill would give Coloradans with limb loss the same access to sports prosthetics.
"Not only is it the right thing to do from a moral standpoint... from a social justice standpoint... but economically, it's right thing to do for how much it's going to save on health care costs, whether physical and mental health, down the line," he said.
David Schlicht is among those helping pass the bill.
"I feel bad for people who aren't as lucky as I was," Schlicht said.
Losing a limb is hard enough, he says, without losing the ability to do the things you love.
"I go snowmobiling now, keep up with friends because have right foot for it... I'm like, better than my buddies at some stuff. With the right prosthetic, I can do just about anything," he said.
David Schlicht has a story that is both heartbreaking and inspiring.
Schlicht will graduate high school this year as he considers training for the Paralympics.
The bill passed the House Health and Insurance Committee unanimously, but is stuck in the Appropriations Committee.
The Division of Insurance is required to do a fiscal analysis of bills that impact insurance premiums but this one was introduced too late.
Shaneis Kehoe is hoping her analysis will be enough. It is now being published by an international peer reviewed journal.
