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Strutting their stuff: Company rolls out sexy prosthetic leg
By Jessica Heslam
Sunday, August 28, 2005 - Boston Sunday Herald

Paul Harney

Look out, Heather Mills McCartney!
Female amputees are giving the gorgeous former model a run for her money with a new sexy, shapely leg created by a Wakefield man.

Paul Harney has developed the LISA (Lightweight Inconspicuous Shapely Active) leg for amputees who want to wear high heels and don't want unsightly lines on their backsides - often caused by the prosthetic limb's edge.

"What women want is a functional, pretty leg. Women can wear a 2-inch heel with this leg and go barefoot,'' said Harney, owner of the FDR Center for Prosthetics and Orthotics, Inc., in Nashua, N.H.

Olga Vigna, a Russian-born woman living in Belmont, developed a disease at a young age that prevented her left leg from growing. Doctors amputated it when she was 19 so a prosthetic leg would fit better.

Vigna, 32, loves her new LISA leg. She wears it to work and to clubs. "It's very beautiful and very sexy. I can wear jeans. I can wear a skirt,'' said Vigna, who works at FDR. ``It allows you to adjust your shoe so you can wear sneakers and high heels when you go out.''

"You don't feel sexy when you have a bad prosthesis,'' Vigna said. ``You want to have the same leg like any other person does.''

Typically, the edge of a prosthetic leg fits up near a woman's pantyline. Harney's new leg is cut lower so no embarrassing lines show through pants and skirts.

"Trying to hide those edges had been a problem,'' Harney said. There's a smaller knee and a button by the ankle that can be pushed to adjust the angle of the foot, which allows people to wear heels and flats or go barefoot.

The legs are custom-made and cost between $12,000 and $14,000. Men also can wear one.

"If a man wanted to wear a cowboy boot - that's the foot he would want,'' Harney said.

Mills, who is married to former Beatle Paul McCartney, lost her leg in a 1993 motorcyle accident.

jheslam@bostonherald.com

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