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| Mike Penketh is one of those fabulous characters who sets his goals sky high and then actually achieves them. |
Seven years ago, in a snap of the fingers, a Vacaville man's life changed forever. He suffered some catastrophic injuries that could have ruined his life. On this special assignment, John Iander, shows us how science and humanity have re-made this remarkable man. And how thousands of school kids are getting to know him.
Mike Penketh / Survivor: "I've always been a guy who went out and did things."
Mike Penketh is one of those fabulous characters who sets his goals sky high and then actually achieves them.
Mike Penketh / Survivor: "I joined the Marine Corps. I flew jets in the Marine Corps, the first time I went aboard an aircraft carrier in an A-4 Skyhawk, that was a tremendous challenge."
That led Mike to a career at the airlines. He also flew air tankers attacking fires. But that still wasn't enough thrill, so Mike began flying aerobatic and racing aircraft.
Mike Penketh / Survivor: "There is no room for error, absolutely no room for error."
One week in 1993, Mike won his class at the Reno Air races. The next week, Penketh tried to break a land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats. There he was, foot on the pedal passing two hundred fifty miles an hour.
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| Penketh tried to break a land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats.. |
Mike Penketh / Survivor: "I remember going down the racecourse and feeling the car accelerate and saying wow, this thing is really going good today."
What happened next is a mystery. The car disintegrated.
Mike Penketh / Survivor: "The centrifugal force threw my arms out of the cockpit of the car and my hands were sheared off at that time."
Weeks later Mike woke up in the hospital and began coping with his newlife.
Mike Penketh / Survivor: "Just for a few moments I thought, 'where's the closest bridge?'"
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| team of doctors and engineers helped perfect a set of electronically controlled hands. |
It was a long road back. Mike was fitted with the standard prosthetic hooks. They were clumsy, inaccurate, frustrating. So, Mike's newest challenge became giving himself a hand, or two.
A team of doctors and engineers helped perfect a set of electronically controlled hands. A couple of times a week now, you can find this bionic man telling his story to wide-eyed school kids.
Mike Penketh / Survivor: "My brainwaves go from my brain to the ends of my arm where the muscle is, cause I have no hands, so I flex the muscle and the hand operates, just like your hand does. Okay. No, shake that hand and I can squeeze harder and harder. Ouch. Ha Ha.""
Today Mike works with a dedicated group of volunteers in an outreach program called "A Touch of Understanding." The idea is to introduce school kids to the special challenges of the disabled.
The students learn what it's like being confined to a wheelchair, writing in Braille, or maneuvering with a cane as if they were blind. And these students get to meet Mike and see his bionic arms in action, even if it is a little weird!
Mike clearly loves this new role as teacher.
Mike Penketh / Survivor: "We can always count on him. He's a terrific example for the kids to see."
And while Mike has these kids captivated by his new hands, he never misses a chance to give a little pep talk about surviving.
Mike Penketh / Survivor: "Life is too short not to have fun. We don't want to worry about what we don't have, we want to do the best with what we do have."
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| While Mike has these kids captivated by his new hands, he never misses a chance to give a little pep talk about surviving. |
Mike says he didn't get more spiritual after his accident, he thinks it was just fate that his number was up. But he's also quick to credit these kids with helping him recover mentally.
Mike Penketh / Survivor: "Touch of understanding hasbeen a great program for me. It has given me a lot of confidence in myself being able to talk to people about my disability. I got into because I wanted something out of it, but as it turns out I've been able to pass my message to a lot of young people."
Ask Mike what his accident taught him and you see inside a man who has re-thought and re-directed his life.
Mike Penketh / Survivor: "I've learned to appreciate people, I've become very patient and I wasn't before. Before I was the kind of guy who said, I don't care, if it's in my way, I'll just step on it and keep on marching. There were no bumps in the road. Now, there are a lot of bumps in the road that I've learned to work around, I've learned to let people help me work around those bumps."
Mike's wife Mary Anne agrees.
Mary Anne / Mike's Wife: "He used to be a real daredevil, but now I think he takes the time to say, is this really safe?"
Well maybe, but Mike is still an adrenaline junkie. After years of battling the bureaucracy, Mike got his pilot's license back. He can't fly fighter jets or Boeings, but he is back behind the stick of his Aerobatic airplane.
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| Mike's mechanical hands may soon give him a sense of feeling of both pressure and temperature changes. |
But even though Mike had over twenty thousand hours of flight experience, he had to learn to fly all over again. While his new hands are truly remarkable, they'd don't give him a sense of touch. He cannot feel the control inputs from the stick.
Mike Penketh / Survivor: "When I fly, I have to visually look out and see the wing drop and correct it and then look again to see if I have corrected enough."
Mike's bionic hands are always being upgraded. This pair can actually sense when an object he's holding begins to slip.
Mike Penketh / Survivor: "If you put an empty glass in my hand, as you fill that glass with liquid. The glass gets heavier and it can sense the glass getting heavier, so the hand will automatically tighten up."
And engineers are already close to the next big breakthrough. Mike's mechanical hands may soon give him a sense of feeling of both pressure and temperature changes.
And for Mike, that might be the greatest reward. The ability to feel these little fingers saying hello.
John Iander, KOVR 13 News.