Pair of artificial/prosthetic legs used by Tracey Baynam

Made:
1975-1985
Pair of prosthetic legs, adapted for a teenager user Pair of prosthetic legs, adapted for a teenager user Pair of prosthetic legs, adapted for a teenager user Pair of prosthetic legs, adapted for a teenager user Pair of prosthetic legs, adapted for a teenager user Pair of prosthetic legs, adapted for a teenager user Pair of prosthetic legs, adapted for a teenager user Group shot of pairs of prosthetic limbs made for Tracey Baynam

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Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

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License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

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Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

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License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

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Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

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License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

License

Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

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License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

License

Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

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License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

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Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

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Pair of prosthetic legs, adapted for a teenager user
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London

Pair of prosthetic legs, adapted for a teenager user
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London

Pair of prosthetic legs, adapted for a teenager user
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London

Pair of prosthetic legs, adapted for a teenager user
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London

Pair of prosthetic legs, adapted for a teenager user
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London

Pair of prosthetic legs, adapted for a teenager user
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London

Pair of prosthetic legs, adapted for a teenager user
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London

Group shot of pairs of prosthetic limbs made for Tracey Baynam
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London.

Pair of artificial/prosthetic legs, used by Tracey Baynam, a teenager living with thalidomide impairments, made by J E Hanger and adapted by a limb fitter at Queen Mary's Roehampton so high heeled shoes could be worn, United Kingdom, 1975-1985

“The trouble was they were like an old comfy pair of shoes. By the time you’d got used to them and they were all comfortable you were too big for them and you’d got to have another pair.” Tracey Baynam, talking as part of the Thalidomide Society’s oral history project

Many children living with limb difference caused by thalidomide eventually rejected prosthetic or artificial limbs. For Tracey though,

“I wanted to [wear the limbs] because I was trying to be normal and a normal person wasn’t in a wheelchair, a normal person was standing upright”

As she grew up, she persuaded her limb fitter Fred to make a set of prosthetics to accommodate four-inch stilettos, which he did in his spare time. For each pair of artificial limbs, she had four or five sessions with her fitter, Fred Rose, accompanied by her mum when she was younger. The first task was to make plaster casts of her lower body for the limbs to be altered to fit her body shape. Over the course of the sessions, tweaks and adaptations would be made. However, they were still heavy and could be difficult to move.

“They were never comfortable even the best pair Fred ever made me in the world were never comfortable.”

After years of walking with sticks to help her balance on her artificial limbs, Tracey developed osteoporosis in her shoulders. She had also married and had an active young family and decided to use a wheelchair. Occasionally she still wore her prosthetic/artificial limbs while using her wheelchair, in her words to ‘appear normal.’ After a while though the prosthetics “hung around into the bedroom for ages and ages. Then they just got moved to the loft… It wasn’t done lightly… I needed to put them out of sight so that I’m not tempted because they hurt my shoulders.” After appearing on BBC programme, ‘Call the Midwife’, Tracey donated her artifical egs to the Science Museum.

Thalidomide was a compound found in drugs prescribed to people in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Although today it is associated primarily as a treatment for pregnancy related nausea, it was also prescribed to anyone experiencing symptoms of colds, flu, headaches, anxiety, and insomnia. Thalidomide causes nerve damage in the hands and feet of adults, but when taken in early pregnancy it causes impairments such as limb difference, sight loss, hearing loss, facial paralysis, and impact to internal organs. One tablet is enough to cause significant impairments. Researchers later identified that there was a link between the impairment a person is living with, and which day of the pregnancy thalidomide was taken. UK distributors withdrew the drug in 1961 and a government warning was issued in May 1962.

Details

Category:
Orthopaedics
Object Number:
2019-23
Materials:
plastic, leather, steel and wood
Measurements:
overall: 860 mm x 250 mm x 250 mm,
type:
artificial leg and prosthetic leg

Parts

One of a pair of artificial/prosthetic legs used by Tracey Baynam

One of a pair of artificial/prosthetic legs used by Tracey Baynam

One of a pair of artificial/prosthetic legs, used by Tracey Baynam, a teenager living with thalidomide impairments, made by J E Hanger and adapted by a limb fitter at Queen Mary's Roehampton so high heeled shoes could be worn, United Kingdom, 1975-19855

Measurements:
overall: 860 mm x 250 mm x 250 mm,
Materials:
plastic , leather , steel and wood
Object Number:
2019-23/1
type:
artificial leg
One of a pair of artificial/prosthetic legs used by Tracey Baynam

One of a pair of artificial/prosthetic legs used by Tracey Baynam

One of a pair of artificial/prosthetic legs, used by Tracey Baynam, a teenager living with thalidomide impairments, made by J E Hanger and adapted by a limb fitter at Queen Mary's Roehampton so high heeled shoes could be worn, United Kingdom, 1975-1985

Measurements:
overall: 860 mm x 250 mm x 250 mm,
Materials:
plastic , leather , wood and steel
Object Number:
2019-23/2
type:
artificial leg