\u201cI want to show them that something that sounds scary can be empowering and that it can give them multiple skills they\u2019d never dreamed of.\u201d<\/p>\nHayden Hatch ’12<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Looking back, Hatch calls his Zambia experience \u201clife changing.\u201d He spent time with the children\u2019s parents and learned that for many of them, just traveling to the Beit Cure Hospital, which specializes in children\u2019s orthopedic issues, was a challenge. In this central African nation where the average annual income is $1,300, artificial limbs are unaffordable. Few adults expect children missing limbs to go to school. They are seen as hopeless cases. Besides their disabilities, social stigma sullies them\u2014and their families. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cParents were awestruck when I told them I was a doctor in the United States and was able to become one despite missing a limb. That wasn\u2019t something they could imagine for their children,\u201d says Hatch. \u201cMy story inspired them to have faith and hope their child could become a physician.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hatch was born with a congenital condition in which his tibia, the weight- bearing bone that connects the ankle and knee, was curved. To make matters worse, he practically had no fibula, the bone which supports the tibia. His condition has no name. To this day Hatch doesn\u2019t know what caused it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Diagnosed at 10 months, he got along reasonably well. He ran a mile in fifth grade in the Presidential Physical Fitness Test, though he was slower than other children. He took part in all gym activities and suffered little teasing. \u201cPeople around me were very supportive,\u201d he recalls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But his life changed one day in sixth grade gym class. He was running around, and his tibia snapped. \u201cI felt excruciating pain,\u201d he says. For the next 20 years, Hatch used crutches. He endured surgeries and corrective braces that failed to correct the leg. Chronic pain became his companion. By 2021, when he had the limb amputated, it was six inches shorter than his left leg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even before the accident, doctors had advised his parents to remove the limb. \u201cWhenever my orthopedic surgeon mentioned the word amputation, I would faint in his office. My dad had to sit behind me on his examining table to prevent me from falling backwards when that word was said.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n His parents rejected such advice. They wanted their son to have as much autonomy in his life as possible. They feared that a decision to remove the limb might limit future choices their son might want to make. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s my goal to get rid of that feeling shared by children with similar conditions,\u201d says Hatch. \u201cI want to show them that something that sounds scary can be empowering and that it can give them multiple skills they\u2019d never dreamed of.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n When asked whether he regrets not having the surgery sooner, he grows pensive and replies, \u201cIt\u2019s hard to tell. If it wasn\u2019t for that, I don\u2019t know if I would be in the same field I\u2019m in now,\u201d he says. The years of suffering \u201cradically changed my life for the better,\u201d according to him. \u201cI think it convinced me to help others. If I\u2019d had the surgery early on, I might not be in the same position in the medical field, showing kids what they could become.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hatch plans to become a board- certified neurologist and see patients while also doing research into the neurogenetics of neurodevelopmental conditions. A decisive moment came during his work in the Pomona College neuroscience lab of Karen Parfitt, the wife of Steve Adolph, a Harvey Mudd biology professor under whom Hatch also studied. \u201cThat was the light bulb moment, like, Oh, this thing called neuroscience is interesting to me,\u201d he recalls. One day he would like to lead an organization that bridges science, medicine and advocacy work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A turning point in his life came prior to his amputation when he joined a Facebook group for parents and caregivers of children who have the condition Claes Jensen syndrome. At the time, he was studying this rare neurodevelopmental disorder in a lab while getting his MD and PhD in biomedical sciences at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, but the syndrome seemed abstract. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One day, he decided to bring together children with the syndrome at a Long Island event on Rare Disease Day. (It falls each year on Feb. 28.) It was the first time they had met anyone else who shared their condition. \u201cSeeing children with the same rare syndrome meet each other convinced me this was the field I wanted to be in, and it convinced me to get the surgery. I realized there was something I could do to enhance my well-being.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Those families still talk about Hatch. 31 \u201cHe showed them he truly cared about them and that his research was trying to better their lives,\u201d says geneticist Julie Secombe, his PhD thesis advisor at Einstein. According to her, his efforts led to the formation of a foundation which seeks to find a cure for the syndrome. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHayden has overcome incredible obstacles to get where he is,\u201d says Dr. Myles Akabas who oversees the dual MD\/ PhD degree program at Einstein. \u201cHe has amazing strength of character. When he told me he had finally come to grips with the fact that they had to amputate, I started crying, and he told me it was going to be okay.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hatch foresees amazing developments in 10 to 20 years in the field of prostheses. An emerging technology called osteointegration might connect artificial limbs to bone by being screwed in like a dental implant. Some prostheses might even link to the nervous system. \u201cA recipient will control his foot as though he has an actual limb. It amazes me,\u201d says Hatch whose titanium lower leg has a hydraulic ankle. \u201cThat, to me, is cool.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hayden hatch \u201912 gets mixed reactions. When he is out for a jog and people see the curved carbon fiber running blade that replaces his right leg below the knee, some say \u201cThat\u2019s super cool.\u201d Others tell him they didn\u2019t know such a super strong yet springy thing existed. \u201cIt\u2019s a common misconception that people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions\/166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Two](\"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-summer-2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2025\/08\/F3_article-image-1-1024x664.jpg\")