Philippi, VA where the group spent the night in a barn.
Upon hearing the first sounds of battle he ran to his
horse in the stable but was hit with a 6 pound cannon
ball which shattered his leg. He became the first of
50,000+ amputees just two days after enlisting. When
he was returned home through a prisoner exchange he
didn’t like the type of prosthetic leg he had which had
changed little over the past three hundred years. He went
upstairs to his room, rarely left, and worked for three
months with barrel staves and other items to hand-carve
his own leg. His family, believing that he was suffering
depression, was shocked when he walked down the stairs
on the leg that he made. The difference between his leg
and the American leg was that he used rubber bumpers
in the knee and ankle instead of cords. He was able
to patent his invention with the Confederacy. Virginia
commissioned him to make his limbs for the vets of the
Civil War. ii
J. E. Hanger (Photo courtesy of Hanger, Inc.)
Carlton Fillauer was the son of a German
immigrant, George Fillauer, Sr., who owned a drug store
in Chattanooga, TN that provided orthopedic bracing
and artificial limbs to those WWI vets that were referred
by the neighboring hospital. A German “orthomeister”
was hired to come to America to make the limbs for
Mr. Fillauer. Carlton helped his father in these
orthopedic endeavors. He later joined the U. S.
Army and served during WWII as a prosthetist.
It was Carlton who took over his father’s business,
and with experience working under the National
Research Council, he was able to expand his
business to research and manufacturing.
Today, Fillauer is an international orthotics
and prosthetics company still based out of
Chattanooga, TN. iii
End of an old Era,
Beginning of a New Era
Carlton Fillauer evaluates a patient with transfemoral
amputation. (Photo courtesy of Fillauer)
16
WINTER 2013
Over the past, the legs
have been predominantly
hand-carved from wood,
perhaps with a simple knee
and/or ankle. Starting with
the World Wars, new lighter,
stronger materials were being
introduced. One of the orthopedic
doctors to really research surgical
techniques and materials for prosthetic legs
was Dr. Ernest Burgess.
Dr. Burgess served in the Army during WWII