Hartselle graduate creates product for amputees
Kylie Wright’s small business is out to help amputees become more independent in their everyday lives.
The 2019 Hartselle graduate joined forces with fellow engineering student, Jenna Smith, during their senior year at the University of Mississippi. Tasked with as assignment to find a solution to an unmet need in the medical community, the duo developed The Antler.
3-D printed and made from ABS and paracord, the Antler allows lower limb amputees to shower standing independently, something no other device on the market allows. It began as a way to help their friend Nikki Jonah, a lower limb amputee and senior at Ole Miss, regain her independence and restore a sense of normalcy after her amputation. The company was named Moose Medical after Jonah’s service dog, Moose.
Top portion of The Antler after attaching the netting
Moose, Nikki Jonah’s service dog.
The Antler is an independent shower support stand that allows amputees to shower while standing while also allowing the opportunity to wash the residual limb. While showering is an often-overlooked luxury, having to sit in the shower is a loss of independence and convenience for amputees. The Antler is portable, lightweight and adjustable in height to work for every level of amputation.
Jonah said before The Antler, she had to sit down in the shower or take baths exclusively. She had not been able to stand in the shower for an entire year before using the product her friends named after her service dog, an English Golden Retriever.
“Having a prosthetic leg takes away some of the “get up and go” a lot of people have,” Jonah said. “There’s a lot more steps to starting day and being able to stand makes showers much faster than they used to be. I’m thankful to get some of that time back every day.”
Nikki Jonah, Moose and Kylie Wright
To continue to produce The Antler and make a difference in the lives of amputees like Jonah, Wright said Moose Medical must obtain a design and utility patent on the device. While The Antler is currently protected under a provisional patent, the company needs help raising money to obtain a full patent and trademark with United States Patent and Trademark Office. Wright said the patent will cost nearly $15,000.
Money raised will go directly to paying to protect the company’s intellectual property and to acquiring molds to be able to produce the device through injection molding.
Wright is in her first year at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. She is pursuing a masters in orthotics and prosthetics.
Her passion for orthotics and prosthetics began when she was a part of the Medical Academy at Hartselle High School. Job shadowing at Crosswalk Prosthetics in Priceville, Wright witnessed what she called a life-changing event.
“The first day I was there, there was a Vietnam veteran getting his very first leg,” she said. “For various reasons he had never had a prosthetic. I got to be a part of that, and I got to see his first steps in what had been many years, and I fell in love with it from there.
“It changed everything in a way,” Wright said.
To help Wright and Smith fund Moose Medical, LLC, you can find their GoFundMe online by visiting https://www.gofundme.com/f/moose-medical-patent-fund. Their current goal is to raise $20,000.
