`Seattle Foot' inventor dies

DR. ERNEST MARTIN BURGESS, once honored as "Physician to the World," worked all his career to improve the lives of amputees in this country and around the globe.

Before the invention of the "Seattle Foot," many amputees had limited mobility and outlooks.

But after Seattle orthopedic surgeon Ernest Martin Burgess and his colleagues from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs developed the relatively light, energy-storing prosthetic device, thousands of amputees could do all sorts of things - walk, run, bicycle, ski, climb mountains - and lead essentially normal lives.

Dr. Burgess, a University of Washington professor who often worked in developing countries, died Wednesday of age-related causes, including a stroke. He was 88.

"He was just a brilliant man, always thinking, always working because he believed so strongly in what he was doing," said his biographer, Margaret Marshall. "The National Veterans Association in giving him one of its many awards called him `Physician to the World.' "

As a young Army surgeon in the Pacific theater of World War II, Dr. Burgess operated on thousands of young soldiers whose injuries required amputations. That led to a lifelong interest in the care of such patients - and notably in fitting them with more-functional artificial limbs.

Throughout the years he studied to improve prostheses, and in 1985 earned a top Veterans Administration award for his "extraordinary contributions to the rehabilitation of war-injured veterans."

Among the contributions was the "Seattle Foot." It looked more natural and featured a nylon composite leaf-spring within, running three-fourths of the way from the ankle to the toes. The spring added power to each step, enabling users to perform athletic feats such as running and jumping.

Dr. Burgess also was instrumental in developing computer software, called the "Shape Maker," which designs custom limbs quickly and cheaply. Such limbs are lighter, stronger and more flexible than the rigid, heavy wooden limbs many amputees had been wearing.

The equipment has been made available to medical teams in developing countries with high numbers of amputees.

Dr. Burgess' award-winning team also developed a technique for below-knee amputations that reduced the number of above-knee amputations.

Through Dr. Burgess' efforts, some 6,000 amputees in Vietnam, many of them injured by land mines, have been fitted at no charge with prosthetic devices.

"About two million new land mines are sown annually in combat areas throughout the world," Dr. Burgess wrote. ". . . Hundreds of thousands of amputees lead hopeless lives of desolation that could be greatly improved by prosthetic limbs."

That was the reason, he wrote, that he founded the Prosthetics Outreach Foundation of Seattle in 1985.

A few years later, Dr. Burgess and Vietnam veterans opened the Prosthetic Research Center near Hanoi's main railroad. It also was a clinic of reconciliation, helping thaw relations between the U.S. and Vietnamese governments.

Raised in Roosevelt, Utah, he earned an undergraduate degree in bacteriology at the University of Utah. He earned a medical degree at Columbia University, working nights in the medical-school morgue and in laboratories to pay his way.

He interned at what is now Swedish Medical Center/First Hill, where he met his future wife, then a patient.

After World War II, he returned to Seattle to work at hospitals and as a clinical professor of orthopedics at the UW. He helped pioneer hip-replacement surgery in Seattle, performing thousands of such operations.

In 1985, Dr. Burgess earned a top Veterans Department honor, the Olin E. Teague Award, for his "extraordinary contributions to the rehabilitation of war-injured veterans."

The UW orthopedics department subsequently established the Ernest M. Burgess Endowed Chair for Orthopedic Investigation.

Dr. Burgess was also influential at Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center, donating thousands of hours of orthopedic service.

Although he had retired from active surgery, in recent years he worked with veterans groups on difficult orthopedic cases.

Surviving Dr. Burgess are his wife, Ruth, of Mercer Island; sons Ernest of Seattle and Steve of Mercer Island; daughter Donna in California and several grandchildren.

Services will be held at 1:30 p.m. Friday in the First Presbyterian Church of Seattle, Seventh Avenue and Spring Street.

Carole Beers' e-mail address is cbeers@seattletimes.com.