MANILA, Philippines?Therdchai Jivacate is no ordinary orthopedic surgeon. What he cut off from his patients, he sought to replace. He gave them back not only their limbs, but also their self-worth.

He invented not only cheap artificial legs made of local materials, but also the apparatus to create them, so that after he provided artificial legs to almost 16,000 amputees in Thailand in the last 16 years, the amputees themselves can now provide more for their fellow amputees.

For this, he got the Ramon Magsaysay Award for public service this year.

Jivacate was sent to Chiang Mai as an intern some 40 years ago where, in the course of his training as a young medical school graduate of the Chulalongkorn Hospital Medical School, he amputated legs of many patients because of accidents and diseases.

Many of the patients were too poor to afford artificial legs sold in hospitals. They also cannot afford to idle, so the poor amputees resorted to using bamboo, discarded bicycle parts or plastic pipes as makeshift crutches.

It was a display of ingenuity born out of poverty that inspired Jivacate to work.

?I am the one who cut their legs off. I felt that I should also be the one to do something for them,? said Jivacate, who also studied rehabilitation medicine in the United States.

The raw materials were mostly imported from other countries so commercial artificial legs were very expensive then. They were also only available in Bangkok, the nation?s capital, and Chiang Mai is more than 700 kilometers away, he said.

There was no way the poor amputees in Chiang Mai could get the prostheses so Jivacate left Chiang Mai, went to Bangkok and learned how artificial legs were made.

Recycled plastic bottles

Jivacate?s efforts paid off. He managed to create artificial limbs using recycled plastic yogurt bottles. He went back to the province, used his own savings as a young doctor and gave these to his poor patients for free.

Jivacate continued refining his invention and switched to using environment-friendly plastic materials produced in Thailand. Since the raw materials were locally made, producing the artificial limbs cost almost 10 times less than the commercially available ones, he said.

He provided two sets of legs to many patients: The first one is for farming, so they can continue working. The second one is coated with skin color, so the amputees can actually wear slippers.

Royal family

In 1992, Thailand?s late Princess Mother Sri Nagarindra heard of Jivacate?s work and created the Prostheses Foundation in Chiang Mai.

On its website, the Prostheses Foundation hailed the invention of a cheap prosthetic foot for farmers since most Thais were into farming. The artificial foot is durable as it can be used not only in farming but also in ?water, mud, animal pens and for climbing trees or mountains.?

To reach more poor amputees, Jivacate and his staff members, supported by the royal family as well as government and private donors, started field clinics in remote mountainous provinces.

Custom-made

The amputees would line up and Jivacate would mold and test custom-made artificial legs for each of them. Soon, his noble work reached as far as areas in neighboring countries like Malaysia, Laos and Burma (Myanmar).

He also invented an apparatus that could finish a tailor-fit artificial limb in just three hours so the amputees need not wait very long to walk again.

Smiles

Jivacate got numerous local awards for his work. Some applauded his invention and cited his ingenuity as a doctor. Some recognized his generosity and considered him an outstanding citizen.

But what mattered most to Jivacate were the smiles of his patients as they fitted their new legs, held his hands for balance and struggled to walk.

?It makes me really happy to see them walk,? he said.

His work is not only about helping amputees walk again. He has enabled many of them to help their fellow amputees as well.

Jivacate put up permanent clinics to hold workshops where he and his staff taught amputees how to make artificial limbs. Training usually runs for three months.

Gave back dignity

Jivacate gave the trained amputees the apparatus and the raw materials and assisted them in bringing these to their remote communities so they, too, could spread the gift of getting back not only their ability to walk, but also their dignity.

?We give them everything?the machine, the parts, the raw materials?so the amputees can make the artificial legs even in rural areas (for their fellows) free of charge,? Jivacate said.

?It is great because the amputees who got the artificial legs can also help other amputees by themselves,? he added.

In giving Jivacate the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize, the Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation cited his ?dedicated efforts in Thailand to provide inexpensive, practical and comfortable artificial limbs even to the poorest amputees.?

He dreamed of being a soldier when he was a kid, envisioning himself driving a fighter jet, saving his people from enemies.

It is not really very different from what he has become?a 68-year-old soft-spoken doctor who has saved his patients from losing hope by giving their future new legs to stand on.

(This article is based on an interview with Dr. Therdchai Jivacate during the presentation of the awardees at the Ramon Magsaysay Center on Aug. 28 and on his short profile from the RMAF.)