The thought of losing one or both legs instantly produces thoughts of life in a wheelchair. For those who were born missing a limb, it’s all they’ve ever known. Susan Longchamp, a first-year student, is one of these people. In fact, she thinks it’s pretty cool.
Standing out in the crowd
Longchamp was born without a fibula bone in her left leg, a condition known as Congenital Longitudinal Deficiency of the Fibula. Her parents, Donna and Tim Longchamp, were faced with the decision of having their daughter be in a wheelchair for life, or amputating her leg below the knee.
The 10-month-old girl had her left leg amputated below the knee, but the missing limb has not hindered her from achieving her dreams.
 |
Longchamp has different legs for running and regular use.
(Photo courtesy of Susan Longchamp) |
“I’m not handicapped in any way,” she says. “I can run and do everything a normal person can do.”
“It doesn’t affect me as much as people would think,” she says. “I played soccer in middle school, and ran track and cross country throughout high school.”
Longchamp, a psychology major, grew up in Barre, Vt., with two sisters and one brother. Longchamp learned to swim in the family pool and experienced a childhood no different from her peers.
“I was never really picked on when I was younger," Longchamp says. "Kids just asked a lot of questions like, ‘How come your leg is that color and mine isn’t? I’ve had many positive experiences and I think that helped me get to where I am today.”
All she's ever known
Like most adolescents, Longchamp was self-conscious. She wore pants until she was more comfortable with showing her prosthetic leg, Longchamp's mother Donna says.
“Before she was a teenager, she was a little shy,”Donna says. “When she was really little and I could still fit her in the grocery cart seat, she would kick her prosthetic leg off at the store to see people’s reaction.”
Susan learned to walk with a prosthetic leg when she was 16 months old.
“I’m pretty confident because I’ve had a prosthetic leg all my life,” Longchamp says “It’s much easier for me than for people who lose a limb in an accident later on in their life.”
Susan removes the leg when she sleeps and in the shower. The prosthetic leg is made of silicone and cannot be in contact with water.
 |
Longchamp is taking a break from the running cross country right now.
(Photo courtesy of Susan Longchamp) |
An average prosthetic leg costs $20,000. All her medical costs are covered by the Shriner’s Hospital for Children, in Springfield, Mass., Susan says.
In her garage sits a box of 20 different prosthetic legs she has accumulated over the years. She has stopped growing, which means fewer trips to Shriner’s.
“I used to get fitted every 10 months because I would grow all the time,” Susan says. “Now I have three that I alternate between. I have two for cosmetic reasons, one allowing me to even wear heels, and the other I can just wear flips flops or flat shoes with.”
Her best friend Whitley Patterson says Longchamp has always been very upbeat about her situation.
“She’s a great person,” Patterson says, a first-year at the University of Vermont. “I don’t even think about the leg anymore. I think Susie knows that it could be a lot worse. She doesn’t let it bother her.”
Susan looks on the brighter side of things and realizes that it would have been much worse for her if her amputation level had been different, Patterson says.
At the age of 18, she wore high heels for the first time.
“I got my leg that had the adjustable option to it just last year,” she says. “It was the first time I got to wear heels, so I was pretty excited.”
Soon after receiving her adjustable leg, Susan graduated from Spaulding High School.
Running her own race
More often than not, people often don’t realize that Longchamp even has a prosthetic leg, she says.
 |
Longchamp wore high heels for the first time when she was 18 years old.
(Photo courtesy of Susan Longchamp) |
“It’s cold here in Vermont pretty much throughout the year so I wear pants all the time,” Susan says. “When I put a dress or a skirt on, everybody is like, ‘Oh my God, what happened?’ as if it’s a new injury.”
As a former cross country runner, Longchamp’s third prosthetic leg is made for running.
“My running leg isn’t very cosmetic. It’s all black and definitely all function,” Susan says. “It gives me a little spring when I run.”
“Susie is bubbling with life,” Donna says. “She’s always out there giving her 100 percent. I don’t think there’s anything that would hold her back.”
|
