Gilbert boy, firefighter bond over prosthetic legs in heartwarming video
May 11, 2017, 5:45 AM
PHOENIX — On the surface, it may not look like a 12-year-old boy and a firefighter would have much in common.
But this heartwarming video showed Logan, a 12-year-old boy from Gilbert, and Mase Mattingly, a Gilbert firefighter, bonding over their shared prosthetic legs.
Candy Carson, Logan’s mom, said in the video that five years ago, Logan had strep throat, which sent him into septic shock.
Logan spent six months in the hospital, Carson said, which caused him to lose his right lower leg, a couple of fingers, his right eye and had skin grafting all over his body.
He then suffered kidney failure and had to get a transplant two years ago, Carson said.
“So he’s gone through quite a lot,” Carson said in the video.
Luckily, little Logan has someone who has been through a similar experience.
Mattingly, a firefighter for Gilbert Fire and Rescue, said he broke his ankle “really bad” while he was 11 weeks into his 12-week academy.
“I rehabbed it the best I could and lived with it for five years,” Mattingly said in the video. “In 2010, the pain was so bad [that] I elected to cut it off.”
The duo’s paths crossed during water safety day at Logan’s school in 2013, when the firefighters who were at the school noticed he had a “below-the-knee prosthesis,” Carson said.
The firefighters invited Logan and his family to the firehouse to meet Mattingly, tour the fire station and show “things that [Logan] can do” with his prosthetic.
The pair quickly hit it off.
“I’d say he’s awesome, nice and kind,” Logan said of Mattingly in the video.
But the story doesn’t just end there.
Adam Ochoa, also known as Inventor Adam O, has been designing prosthetic feet for more than 25 years and created the “Game Changer” foot, which allows the user to adjust the foot themselves.
“One of my partners, Lance, he came to me and said, ‘Would you be willing to donate five legs to first responders?'” Ochoa said in the video.
But Mattingly, who was one of the first responders who was set to receive a leg, decided to give up his donation to donate his prosthetic to a child: Logan.
However, Ochoa didn’t want to let Mattingly walk away empty-handed: He decided to bring Logan down to the station to donate another prosthetic for the firefighter himself.
The pair shared smiles, hugs and feet — and memories that will last a lifetime.
“I think it’s great for Logan to have a mentor who is also a below-the-knee amputee so he can see the things he can do, and the things he can do for others as well,” Carson said in the video.
