Man gets back prosthetic leg lost while skydiving
A California man who lost his prosthetic leg while skydiving was reunited with the artificial limb Monday at the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office after it had received a call about an unusual find at a local lumberyard.
In the early morning hours Monday, an employee at Redwood Empire spotted something shiny that he first thought was a soda can, according to The Press Democrat.
“Oh, that’s not a soda can, that’s a leg,” Micah Smith, yard production manager, said when the skies lightened and they took a closer look.
“My first concern was ‘OK, where’s the rest?’” Smith told The Press Democrat.
A search of the property revealed nothing more, but he noticed the prosthetic leg had a serial number on it so he phoned the Sheriff’s Office.
A deputy picked up the artificial limb adorned with a Nike tennis shoe and an online search for its owner began under the heading “missing a leg?”
Deputies also took the leg to the Cloverdale Municipal Airport, which sits next to Redwood Empire. There, Tyler Wareham, the owner of NorCal Skydiving, was delighted to see the limb since he knew the regular customer who had lost it the day before. That would be Dion Callaway, a 39-year-old from Santa Rosa who has had nearly 500 jumps since 2003.
“We understood [how bummed he was to lose the artificial limb],” Wareham told The Press Democrat. “We tried to do the best we could [to find it].”
Callaway and others from NorCal Skydiving searched nearby vineyards and properties all day Sunday without success.
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A deputy called Callaway about finding the leg, and Callaway was reunited with the $15,000 limb at the Sheriff’s Office on Monday afternoon.
Callaway told The Press Democrat he lost the prosthetic at the beginning of his 10,000-foot dive.
“I’ve jumped with the prosthetic before, but a rush of air got inside this time and it just flew off,” Callaway told The Press Democrat. “I tried to watch where it was falling, but I was so overwhelmed in that moment I could not keep track.”
Callaway lost his real leg in a skydiving accident while attempting a high-speed landing two years ago. He shattered his heel, and after a year of physical therapy and medical procedures he opted to have his leg amputated below the knee.
The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office revealed in its Facebook post that Callaway, described as a great and humorous guy, quipped that this was his second leg lost while skydiving.
Photos courtesy of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.