Paying It Forward: Life After Quadruple Amputations

When Wayne Moorehead arrived at his first Skills for Life Workshop back in 2018, he crossed paths with one of his doctors, who was there as a guest speaker.

“They were shocked to see me,” Moorehead remembers. “They were like: ‘Didn’t we just discharge you earlier today?’”

It was true. Moorehead, his limbs still bandaged after quadruple amputation a few weeks earlier, had gone directly from his Houston rehab hospital to Skills for Life at a nearby hotel. He was looking for practical information to help him adapt to life with no hands or feet. But more than that, Moorehead sought reassurance that his life wasn’t over.

“I just didn’t know what was next for me,” he says. “When I got to Skills for Life, it was such an eye opener. Here were all these people wearing prosthetic arms, walking on prosthetic legs, and doing everything I was gonna need to learn how to do. It changed my life, it really did.”

Now an adept navigator of the limb-loss waters, Moorehead hopes to change other lives for the better at the 2022 Skills for Life Workshop, which takes place October 5-8 in Houston. Designed specifically for bilateral upper-limb amputees and quad amputees, the conference offers useful tips, tools, and techniques for healthy day-to-day living, along with social and recreational events to build a sense of community among people missing multiple limbs.

The event blossomed from a small local gathering into a global happening that draws people from all over the United States and overseas. In addition to organizing the triennial conference, Enhancing Skills for Life sponsors educational webinars and just-for-fun outings such as bowling tournaments, and in the future they hope to have regular adaptive golf clinics, bicycle rides, and/or ski weekends.

The Skills for Life program covers practical subjects such as meal prep, dressing, grooming, bathing, and other activities of daily living. Additional sessions will focus on home modification, driving, employment, sexual health and intimacy, and building connections on social media. And the social calendar includes diversions such as adaptive gaming, wheelchair rugby, swimming, art and self defense.

Moorehead will be leading a couple of sessions at this year’s conference, but he’s also looking forward to picking up some new pointers. “There’s always something new to learn whenever you spend time with other amputees,” he says. The Skills for Life Workshops are proud to be celebrating the 20th Anniversary of these events this year.

To connect with other individuals who are missing both arms or more, logon at enhancingskillsforlife.org and contact us by clicking on the About Us tab. Scholarships are also available to help cover travel and lodging costs to attend in person events.