A dolphin's tail

Prosthetic specialist Kevin Carroll travels the country tackling the toughest human amputation cases, so it was only natural that he was also drawn to Winter -- the only known dolphin to survive the loss of her powerful tail flukes.

"My heart went out to her, and I was thinking I could probably put a tail on her," said Carroll, vice president of prosthetics at Hanger Orthopedic Group Inc.

Re-creating one of the most powerful swimming mechanisms in nature turned out to be a lot tougher than expected. But after months of experimenting, Carroll and a unique team of experts are well on their way to, as one of them puts it, "MacGyvering" a tail for Winter, who lives at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Clearwater, Fla.

Unlike the 1980s cult TV hero "MacGyver," who worked his way out of tight spots with everyday items, much of what Winter's team is creating is first-of-its-kind stuff.

"We put together a team who doesn't know what 'no' means," said Mike Walsh, Winter's lead veterinarian and a program manager at the University of Florida's aquatic animal health program. "As long as you're willing to try, you can make a big difference."

Lessons can also be learned that will help human amputees. Carroll, for example, found the gel sleeve he developed to cling to 18-month-old Winter's tail without irritating her sensitive skin also soothed a painful prosthesis for Air Force Senior Airman Brian Kolfage of Tucson, Ariz., who lost both legs and his right hand in a 2004 mortar attack in Iraq.

Practitioners had tried dozens of different materials to cushion Kolfage's left prosthesis, which was attached at the pelvis and rubbed against bone spurs that were thinly covered with skin.

"When he tried to walk with prosthetics, you had these daggerlike bony growths sticking into the socket. It was very painful," Carroll said. With the gel that was developed for Winter cushioning his leg, Kolfage finally was able to walk with little pain.

"Brian's situation was similar to Winter's. Winter helped him and hopefully she'll help a lot of others as well," Carroll said.

Carroll, an Orlando resident whose company is based in Bethesda, Md., said he is already thinking of new materials to make human prosthetics tougher in saltwater. And Walsh said the research on Winter is invaluable for understanding dolphin physiology and the treatment of back injuries, which can occur when dolphins are beached.

Winter was a frail, dehydrated 3-month-old when she came to the aquarium in December 2005. A fisherman found her tangled in the buoy line of a crab trap in Indian River Lagoon near Cape Canaveral. The line cut off the blood supply to her tail and it slowly fell off like shreds of paper as the aquarium team worked to save her life.

Winter learned how to swim without her tail, which is used for propulsion -- amazing her handlers with a unique combination of moves that resemble an alligator's undulating swimming style and a shark's side-to-side tail swipes. Winter uses her flippers, normally employed for steering and braking, to get moving.

But her unique swimming style is sure to lead to spinal problems. She already sometimes bends her spine in an unnatural curve. Trainers work with Winter, now 6 feet long and a healthy 180 pounds, on an extensive physical therapy regimen, bending the tail up and down, to keep the right muscles strong.

Walsh said allowing Winter to work out daily with a prosthetic tail might keep her from deteriorating. It is unlikely she will wear the tail full time.

It's uncharted territory. Fuji, an elderly dolphin that lives at an aquarium in Japan, has a prosthesis, but it is attached to the remaining part of his tail. Both of Winter's tail flukes and peduncle, a wrist-like joint that allows a dolphin tail to move up and down, were lost.

Winter's team also has to figure out how to keep the prosthesis from sliding off as the tail creates enough force to propel a 400-pound dolphin out of the water and 10 feet into the air.

"Every step we take is unknown," Clearwater Marine Aquarium CEO David Yates said. "Another group came to us, analyzed her and said ... they didn't know how to make the tail stay on. But Kevin came to us and said we've got the technology. We can do this."

Carroll, who like the others on Winter's team volunteers his time and resources, began by brainstorming elaborate vacuum attachments, but eventually settled on the simple silicone gel sleeve.

Handlers slide the sleeve over Winter's stump and move her tail in up and down motions, teaching her how to swim like a normal dolphin when the prosthesis is attached.

It is a slow process. They don't want Winter to balk at the strange new attachment.

"I thought I could go down, cast her (tail stump) and put the tail on her," Carroll said. "I didn't understand the training that had to go with each fitting of the tail. Working with Winter, we're on her time, not my time. If she's ready to do something, we move forward. It's the same way working with a child. It takes a lot of time."

The team plans to keep socializing Winter with new pieces until, at a point yet to be determined, they will attach the first artificial tail flukes. They plan to start out with small flukes that create a little resistance.

"She is the perfect dolphin for what she has to do," Yates said, watching Winter toy with a herring in her tank. "A lot of dolphins might reject this upfront. But every step of the way she has excelled in everything we have asked her to do."