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Toddler Takes First Steps on Prosthetic Legs

Palm Harbor Patch

Toddlers usually are wary of prostheses, and the 2-year-old Pinellas child had been waiting for five hours. So when Ireland Nugent got the chance to try out her prosthetic legs, she forged ahead like a trouper, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Family, friends and caregivers held their breath until they saw Ireland's spunky attitude and then applauded.  When the prosthetics fitter wanted to take her test legs off, Ireland insisted on keeping them.

The child lost both lower legs and feet in April when her father accidentally ran over her on a riding mower.

Carol Gentry, founder and special correspondent of Health News Florida, has four decades of experience covering health finance and policy, with an emphasis on consumer education and protection.After serving two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia, Gentry worked for a number of newspapers including The Wall Street Journal, St. Petersburg Times (now Tampa Bay Times), the Tampa Tribune and Orlando Sentinel. She was a Kaiser Foundation Media Fellow in 1994-95 and earned an Master's in Public Administration at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in 1996. She directed a journalism fellowship program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for four years.Gentry created Health News Florida, an independent non-profit health journalism publication, in 2006, and served as editor until September, 2014, when she became a special correspondent. She and Health News Florida joined WUSF in 2012.
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