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TwitThisA New Arm
Stewart was jolted by her plea. "She's seen me do a lot of dumb things," he says, "so maybe she was right." Then he remembered the other arm. As an afterthought, he had tucked the prototype into a bag, thinking it might come in handy for parts. For the next couple of days, Stewart worked on it, rigging a makeshift shoulder harness from duct tape and spare straps. He spent a day on the river, fussing and adjusting and tinkering, fully aware that he had to get it right. Finally, he decided to try it out at the next big stretch of rapids.He remembers the moment well, as he headed toward the roaring water: "I felt like I was paddling to my suicide."
To Stewart's relief, the arm held. And so, every morning for the next 127 miles, he would strap it on and set out to battle the Colorado, with Timmy O'Neill guiding him through the killer rapids. The trip became an ongoing workshop in adaptation. Stewart learned that to get a tighter fit, he could slip the prosthesis over a waterproof shirt called a "dry top." When one of the straps pulled free, he drilled holes through it with a Swiss army knife and used string and duct tape to reattach it.
The arm, like its owner, took a beating but never quit. When Michael Davidson heard that the prototype worked beyond expectations, he refused to take credit. "It's a tribute to the guy who wore it," he says. "Willie probably could have made it with a broom handle."
On the very last day of the trip, Stewart paddled off by himself, not truly believing he had made it. He'd been beaten up, suffocated in water cold enough to kill, come close to drowning at least twice, was terrified almost every day, and lost an arm. "Right up to the very last 20 seconds, it was stressful," he admits. "And, boy, was it fun."
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