The hardest part of limb loss comes after the surgery, when everyone else goes back to their life and you are left working out yours. We pair amputees with someone who has already been there, connect them to professionals who understand limb loss, and get them back out into the world.
The Ryan Fitzgerald Foundation connects amputees with professionals who understand limb loss, with mentors who have lived it, and with each other, so that no amputee faces recovery alone.
More than 2.3 million people in the United States are living with limb loss. At that rate, roughly 20,000 of them are here in Middle Tennessee. Many will face financial ruin along the way: lost income, shuttered businesses, and medical debt that follows for years.
Marriages end. Careers disappear. The person who existed before feels irretrievably gone. The healthcare system addresses the body. The financial, emotional, and psychological wreckage is left for the patient to manage alone.
What changes it is not a program. It is a person. Someone who has already been through it, who picks up the phone, and who knows which professionals actually understand limb loss. That is where we start, and that is the gap this foundation exists to close.
Source: Avalere Health, Prevalence of Limb Loss and Limb Difference in the United States, 2024. The Middle Tennessee figure is our own estimate, applying the national rate to the region's population.
"I knew what it felt like to need a prosthetic and wonder how I was going to pay for it. Nobody should ever have to ask that question."
This is the path, and we are building it now. Our role is connection: we find the people, we vet them, and we work with them on cost. We are not yet a grant-making organization and we do not fund devices today. Both direct financial assistance and help with the cost of a device are planned as the Foundation grows.
We pair you with another amputee who is further down the road. Not a counselor and not a case worker. Someone who lost a limb, worked out how to live, and will pick up the phone at eleven at night when you cannot sleep. Matched on what actually matters: how you lost it, where you are in life, and what you are trying to get back to.
Most counselors, physical therapists, and financial planners have never worked with an amputee. Your mentor helps you reach the ones who have. Mental health support, gait training and rehabilitation, and straight guidance on lost income and the bills. We find them, we vet them, and we work with them on cost.
Then we get you out of the house. Hunting, fishing, hiking, biking, a walk, a ball game, or coffee with people who understand without being told. These are the days that turn a recovery into a life, and they are the reason the first two steps exist.
The healthcare system addresses the body.
We address the life.
The Ryan Fitzgerald Foundation is in formation. Our application for 501(c)(3) recognition is pending with the IRS, and we are not yet matching amputees with mentors, for the plainest possible reason: we are still finding the mentors.
That is the one thing you can help with today. If you are an amputee who has found your footing, who remembers the early months clearly and would take a call from someone still in them, we want to hear from you. No credentials and no training required. You have to have been there, and be willing to answer.
And if you are the one in the early months right now, write to us anyway. Your prosthetist and care team are the fastest route to help today. We will keep your note and come find you the day we can make the match.
Three of the five people leading this foundation are amputees, including its Founder. This is not a group that studies the problem from a distance.
Your gift builds the mentor network, brings professionals who understand limb loss within reach, and puts on the days that get people back out into the world. Direct assistance with the cost of care and devices is planned as the Foundation grows.
No amputee should face that journey alone. We are starting in Middle Tennessee.
Donate NowThe Foundation's application for 501(c)(3) recognition is pending with the IRS.
Whether you want to mentor, need a mentor, work as a clinician, or want to give, this reaches a person, not a queue. You can also write to us directly at info@ryanfitzgeraldfoundation.org.
