Six months ago, Chad Crittenden was an amputee who survived cancer.
Now, he is a cancer survivor and the first amputee “Survivor.”
Last summer, Crittenden joined 17 other contestants in the balmy South Pacific to participate in CBS’s rigorous, hit reality-television program, “Survivor: Vanuatu.”
It was a journey that lasted six weeks, involved a $1-million-dollar grand prize and included daily battles against the elements, against fellow competitors and against starvation, exhaustion, dehydration and pain.
“You’re intentionally putting yourself through something really tough,” stated Crittenden, a former teacher who is now a stay-at-home father. “You’re suffering and not having fun a lot of the time you’re there.”
But, thanks to months of help from his prosthetist, Wayne Koniuk, CP, of San Francisco Prosthetics, Crittenden was prepared for the arduous physical challenges, uncomfortable living conditions and his own unique role as the first amputee ever to participate on “Survivor.”
An avid fan of “Survivor” since its 2000 debut, Crittenden always wanted to be in on the action rather than just watching it. When he lost his right leg below the knee two years ago because of synovial sarcoma, a rare form of cancer, he figured he might have a shot at finally being a contestant.
“I always threatened my wife I’d send in a tape,” Crittenden joked. “After the surgery I thought I’d have a much better chance at being looked at.”
Turns out, his instinct was right on the money.
In the middle of reading to his third-grade class of students last spring, the phone in his classroom rang. It was “Survivor” producers, telling him he’d made it onto the ninth season of the show.
“I was trying to contain myself, because I was so excited, and the kids were just waiting for me to finish the story,” he recalled.
And Crittenden now has quite a story of his own to tell: the story of how he and his prosthetist prepared for the hardships his body and prosthesis would face during the athletically demanding and physically taxing weeks on the show.
Because Crittenden was extremely familiar with what happens on “Survivor,” he felt he had a good idea of what to expect and what he and his prosthetist needed to plan for.
“We prepared for all sorts of situations [with my prosthesis]—sand, grit, mud, water, how to clean, how to replace something if it was lost,” Crittenden explained.
“Survivor” participants are given a limited amount of food while being extremely active in competitions against each other, so Crittenden predicted that weight loss was inevitable. In just 27 days of taping, with only one main meal a day, he dropped 15 pounds.
“We started off with the basic stuff…like we knew there would be shrinkage from weight loss, so I brought extra socks,” he said.
Koniuk and Crittenden also knew that he was going to have to swim.
“When he came to me, he explained that he feared if he had to dive right into the water, the water might catch under the sleeve and blow the leg right off of him,” noted Koniuk.
“In my regular, out-of-‘Survivor’ life, I have a shower/swim leg, which has an active ankle that you can lock,” Crittenden added. “But I couldn’t switch legs all the time. Wayne came up with the idea of taking longer silicone sleeves and putting them over my foot with two Velcro® straps to keep the socket dry.”
Koniuk started with the ALPS SFR suspension sleeve Crittenden normally wears, then cut the bottom out of a U.S. Manufacturing Co. Prima Skin Liner to create a cover for the socket.
“The main sleeve was the SFR,” Koniuk said. “Then he’d cover that with the Prima Skin to help create a better seal. On top of that, I made an elastic Velcro® strap that had some silicone embedded in it to stick to the sleeve, for a good, tight seal.”
The invention worked flawlessly. Crittenden had absolutely no problems in any of his swimming or water-related challenges.
The prosthetist-patient team also expected that the natural environment might prove to be problematic. Crittenden noted that sand was especially tough on his device.
“It wasn’t a giant problem with me, but it was the hardest of all the stuff to deal with, because it just gets everywhere,” he said. “Sand would fill up in my rubber foot, but I would just take it out and rinse it in the water.”
He mentioned that his rubber foot completely wore out, to the point where there was a hole in the bottom, but it caused no problems. Koniuk pointed out that Crittenden went barefoot most of the time, which would certainly take a toll on any device.
But, a worn-out foot wasn’t Koniuk’s greatest concern. His worst fear was that Crittenden would suffer a bug bite.
“It might cause local swelling, and then pressure from the socket would make it worse,” he remarked. “[There would be] no way to get in there and relieve the socket at all.”
As a precaution, Koniuk showed Crittenden that cutting a hole in his liner was a quick and easy way to relieve pressure in the socket. As another precaution, Koniuk took his patient to a renowned dermatologist, Dr. William Levy.
“He’s a world-recognized expert on skin care,” Koniuk said. “He gave Chad information for what to do for bug bites or in case the heat or humidity got to him.”
Fortunately, Crittenden suffered no rashes, bites or skin problems. His main worry was that something would break on his prosthesis that he couldn’t fix and he would have to leave the competition. But those worries certainly didn’t stop him.
“I knew that [the show] would be demanding,” noted Crittenden. “But, I had total confidence in my prosthesis.”
Although Koniuk and Crittenden had complete confidence in the prosthesis and Crittenden’s athletic abilities, they both agreed it was better to be safe than sorry. Producers at CBS allowed Crittenden to bring an additional suitcase full of medical supplies in case of an emergency with his device.
“Not everyone is allowed to bring as much stuff as I did,” Crittenden explained. “They were erring on the side of caution. They basically said, ‘Bring all of your stuff, and then we will decide if it’s needed or not at the time.’ There was a ton of gray area involved, because they’d never had an amputee [onthe show].”
Fortunately, Crittenden didn’t use most of the extra supplies he brought and only had to do a few makeshift adjustments to his device during his time on the remote island of Vanuatu.
“He really had no problems,” Koniuk remarked.
Despite the problem-free prosthesis and weeks of physical and mental preparation, a larger question still remains: As the first amputee to compete on “Survivor,” did Crittenden feel he was at a disadvantage compared to the other competitors?
Crittenden’s firm answer is, “No.”
He concedes that it took him more time to do little things, such as cleaning or camp chores, and that he had to allow extra time to take his device on and off. But that was it. He doesn’t even feel his presence on the show was that remarkable.
“Any athlete that has the right prosthesis could do this,” Crittenden stated. “The truth is, I’m the one being put on the air and 20 million people are watching, but there are amputees doing extreme sports all over the place.
“They’re doing insane stuff way worse than what I did,” he added. “I can’t say I’m a unique person in the amputee world going through this, because so many athletic amputees could do what I did.”
Koniuk, however, was still extremely impressed by how Crittenden performed on the show.
“I was amazed at the things he could do,” Koniuk recalled. “I had no knowledge of what went on, and Chad never told me what he did when he came back. When I first saw it on TV [on Thursday nights], I made numerous calls to him on Friday mornings to see if any of the challenges hurt him. He always said, ‘No.’”
While Koniuk learned about the endurance of the various components Crittenden used and the strength of his patient, Crittenden gained some of his own life lessons.
“I learned so much about myself,” he said. “Going into this, I thought I could handle anything, but I went there and suffered. As soon as the sun came up and it was light out, I’d take a long walk and sit and look over the ocean. It was a Zen moment. I knew I was strong and not letting anything affect me.”
It was this determination that helped Crittenden stay in the game for several weeks, until the 10th episode when his competitors voted him off the island.
During his time on the show, Crittenden was a favorite of many viewers, with fan Web sites dubbing him the “inspirational player.”
“It’s interesting what they decided to show,” Crittenden reflected. “The portrayal [of me] wasn’t, ‘Oh, look, he’s having to hassle with [his prosthesis]; he’s struggling.’ It was more, ‘He’s just a regular guy, blending right in, physically up there with everyone else,’ and my prosthesis was a nonissue, which is how it really was.”
Now that he’s home in California, some might be wondering, what will Crittenden do with his newfound fame?
“If given the opportunity, I would love to do some speaking to new amputees,” he said. “When I first had my surgery, I knew going into it that prosthetics had come a long way and that I could get back to a normal athletic life. But, I found it difficult to find information about how to get active again.
“I want to reach out to people,” he concluded, “especially those coming back from the war, just to say, ‘Look, this is what you can do, and there aren’t as many limitations as you’d think.’”
Marique Newell is the staff writer for the O&P Almanac.