“I don’t know any different,” said the double amputee who has worn prosthetic legs since he was two.

“This is my life, and I just get on with it.”

This month, after adjusting to, using and wearing out 14 different sets of lower limbs, Ted, 15, is trialling so-called robot legs with microprocessor knees. They use sensors to calculate position, angles, acceleration and weight loads.

Ted is being treated at the Royal Children’s Hospital. Funding for his hi-tech legs came via the NDIS.

Meleita Finnigan, a prosthetist and orthotist at the RCH, said the new knees and legs would vastly improve Ted’s life.

“These will help him stand for extended periods of time, expanding his options for work, through standing modes in the knee,” she said. “These knees also adapt their gait for increased loads – important when he is carrying a school bag or groceries.”

Ted will also be able to walk up and down stairs, one step at a time. With past legs and knees,
Ted either fell or dropped into a chair to sit. Now he will be able to sit gradually, with both feet planted on the ground.

Ted, who lives in Horsham, 300 km northwest of Melbourne, was born with a rare congenital condition, arriving in the world with no shin bones, knees and ankles.

His parents, Abbie and Peter, decided to have Ted’s legs amputated a year after his birth. Prosthetic legs gave him the best chance of an independent life.

“Ted is so resilient. With every set of legs, he’s just got up and walked,” Abbie says. “He never complains, and he never thinks he’s hard done by. We never made it an issue. We never dwelt on it.”

Peter added: “We’ve done everything like normal with Ted. He’s never been treated differently.”

Ted enjoys going to school, biking, weight training, swimming and basketball.

“Growing up in a positive environment has been a real benefit to me, and my outlook on life,” Ted said.

“I had my legs amputated before my first memory. If I lost my legs later in life, I might have a different outlook, who knows? The biggest issue is people assuming I have issues. I have stresses and anxieties like any teenager, but none are related to my disability.”

At home, he has a cupboard for his old legs and prosthetics. Some, with patterns of Spider-Man, Sonic The Hedgehog and Minecraft, reflect his childhood heroes and passing phases.

“It’s beautiful,” Ted says, looking into the cupboard. “It’s the passage of life, I guess. It’s a symbol of my learning and changing and growing.”

He is grateful, too, for the RCH: “They’re the reason I’m allowed to be a normal teenager through their technology and commitment. The RCH has done so much for me.”

Abbie and Peter were at the RCH when Ted first tried his robot legs and offered an understated two-word review of the technology.

“Like honey,” he said smiling, and kept walking.