[AMP-L] Firefighters Rally Behind Colleague With Prosthesis

[Wayne Renardson]

via The Arizona Republic:

The 4-foot fall from a rock-climbing wall in 2005 shattered Mase 
Mattingly's right ankle, which bent at a 90-degree angle.

The injury - about a week before graduating from the firefighting 
academy -should have ended his career as a Gilbert firefighter long 
before he could battle his first blaze.

Yet Mattingly, 36, pushed through the pain caused by the metal plates 
and screws in his foot and eventually returned to full duty. He still 
fights fires despite a partial leg amputation.

"I immediately set out to prove them all wrong," said Mattingly, 
sitting inside Fire Station 7, the town's busiest.

Eventually the pain became too much, and Mattingly opted to have his 
leg amputated below the knee last October.

<http://spedr.com/2M9FMDUN>

Wayne R