BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer
Ellaine Biancamano, West Long Branch, a double amputee, has been participating in the event for two years and this year stood to play on new prosthetic limbs. LONG BRANCH — The loss of a limb can seem like the end of living a normal life, but a Long Branch company sees it as just the beginning of a new lifestyle.
“We don’t want our patients to feel like they are sick anymore,” Jean Manfredi, a licensed prosthetist/orthotist (LPO) at Manfredi Orthotic and Prosthetic Affiliates, said in an interview last week.
“We want them to get on with their lives, and we help them do just that.”
Prosthetic limbs allow this duffer to participate in the annual First Swing/Learn to Golf clinic at the Suneagles Golf Course at Fort Monmouth in Eatontown. The business was established at 289 Broadway by Manfredi’s husband’s family 49 years ago, and since then, hundreds of patients have been carrying on with their everyday lives using prosthetic limbs manufactured by Manfredi Orthotic and Prosthetic Affiliates.
“We get a patient when they are cleared of their medical issues,” Man-fredi said. “They have been sick for a long time and receiving rehabilitation treatments. They are ready to get well.”
The goal of the local business, which has two other offices in Brick and Middlesex, is “to help our patients realize their goals and potentials, and to assist them in returning to as independent and active a lifestyle as possible,” according to Manfredi.
She added that one way the company helps patients achieve that goal is to have them participate in an annual golf outing.
“It is hard for a father to take his son [with an amputated limb] to a batting cage, but now a driving range can be a possibility,” Manfredi explained.
This year’s 12th annual First Swing/Learn to Golf clinic was held on June 15 at the Suneagles Golf Course at Fort Monmouth in Eatontown.
“This allows our patients to participate in an everyday activity, meet other people and form friendships,” she said.
Some 40 therapists and patients participate in the golf clinic, which includes a seminar for physical, recreational and occupational therapy, instruction on adaptive equipment, learning basic golf techniques and learning how to assist amputees and physically challenged individuals with balance and swing.
After the educational clinics are complete, all participants and their therapists practice their newly learned skills on the driving range, Manfredi said.
“I think the day gives [patients] the confidence to be able to go out and try something new,” Manfredi said. “They are able to take on a new challenge.”
It also presents a challenge to therapists who are responsible for assisting their patients to function with their new prostheses.
“Our hope is that therapists learn new skills to incorporate into their practice,” Manfredi said.
“You see so many success stories.”
One such story is that of Ellaine Biancamano, West Long Branch, who Manfredi des-cribes as a “ball of energy.”
Biancamano, who had her left leg amputated above her knee and her right leg amputated below the knee, has been participating in the event for two years.
Last year, Biancamano was swinging a golf club from a wheelchair with no prosthetic limbs attached to her body and just one year later her new prosthetic limbs have made a great difference.
“It is amazing,” she said. “I can walk, I can dive. I travel. I am just out and going all the time.
“Last year, I had no legs at the golf tournament and shot from my wheelchair. This year, I was able to stand and use a cane to keep my balance.”
But Biancamano has higher hopes for the next year’s golf tournament.
“Next year, I will be standing on my own,” she predicted. “I wouldn’t be able to do any of this without [Manfredi Orthotic and Prosthetic Affiliates].”
Although standing up is a feat in itself, Biancamano said the most fulfilling part of the golf tournament is being able to feel she’s just like everybody else.
“There is a lot of life after amputation,” she said. “You just have to get up and get on with it.”
“You can still do what you did before the amputation, you just do it differently now.”
And Manfredi says that she tries to help her patients realize that simple fact.
“We make prosthetics for any sport you can think of including hockey, skiing, snowboarding and swimming,” Manfredi said.
“We have patients who think they cannot dive or swim anymore but that is not true.”
At Manfredi Orthotic and Prosthetic, once a prosthetic limb is made for a patient, a second water-proof prosthetic limb is manufactured at no cost to the patient.
“A prosthetic leg could cost anywhere from a couple of thousand dollars up to $50,000,” Manfredi said.
“Those prosthetics are too expensive to ruin by participating in water events and insurance only covers one leg. So with every prosthetic, we make a shower/swimming prosthesis at no cost.”
“It is a cost [for the business], but it is something that benefits our patients.”
On a given day, the four certified prosthetist/orthotist (CPO) practitioners at the Long Branch location, one of whom is Manfredi’s husband Robert, see up to a total of 20 patients, Manfredi said.
“Our CPOs design what the patient needs and then a physical therapist helps them use it,” Manfredi said.
“[Our CPOs and therapists] work as a team to evaluate the needs of a patient.”
The business not only specializes in prosthetic limbs, but also manufactures orthotics, spinal bracings and corsets for people who have lost limbs due to blood clots, car accidents or diabetes.
Manfredi says each case is just as gratifying as the next.
“When a patient calls us to say thank you because they were able to dance at their granddaughter’s wedding and they are in tears, then I am in tears,” she said.
“This is a huge deal.”
The family-owned business has gone one step further to changing the lives of their patients.
Bob Manfredi, Manfredi’s’ father-in-law and co-founder of the business, took a dream and turned it into a reality.
He established “Angels With Limbs,” a nonprofit organization that manufactures prosthetic limbs for the uninsured and underinsured, according to Jean Manfredi.
The charitable corporation solicits unused artificial limbs to recycle their usable prosthetic components in fabricating a new prosthesis.
The corporation manufactures one limb a month for anyone in need at no charge, Bob Manfredi said.
“It is a wonderful thing,” he said.
“But the true success comes from the patient.”

