by David Chapman
Staff Writer
Workspace: Geoffrey Hemmen, Hanger Prosthetics & Orthotics
Geoffrey Hemmen often sees people when they’re at their worst.
As an area certified practitioner in prosthetics, he meets people with a bevy of injuries and ailments that have affected the feet and limbs that often times leave them down.
So when he sees a patient, the first thing he does is change the atmosphere.
“I get them to laugh,” said Hemmen, smiling. “What they’re going through is very emotional, so if I can get them to laugh just a little, it breaks the ice.”
Hemmen has been with the Hanger Prosthetics & Orthotics, a national provider of both with 42 clinics, in San Marco, for several years, and is involved with a field he’s passionate about.
As a child, a friend of Hemmen’s mother was in a motorcycle accident and lost a limb — something that changed him and spurred him to make a difference.
“I have the best job in the city,” he boasts. “I enjoy it so much because you do more than just collect a paycheck.”
It’s an emotional process for patients and their families, and Hemmen admits it is hard not to feel the same pains and joys of his patients. First steps, often videotaped by families, tend to evoke more tears of joy than anything else.
The number of patients Hemmen sees each day varies — it’s cyclical, he said, varying from five-to-six a day to anywhere from 15-20 — and the variety doesn’t stop there. Patients who suffer from diabetes, have suffered trauma, have had a stroke, polio, are children or older patrons all come through his door, each with a unique case in need of unique attention.
Hemmen and the staff at Hanger give them the attention and help get them on their
feet again and walking — one of the best signs he sees — out the door.
“I hope I’m doing this for a long time,” he said.
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