Computerized leg gives dancer hope

Monday, Feb. 14, 2005 | 10:53 a.m.

Alicia Karau's dreams of being a dancer, singer, model, actress or network news anchorwoman did not end when doctors amputated her right leg above the knee last June.

The native Nevadan and UNLV junior believes one day she will again dance thanks to the generosity of the public that raised $45,000 to purchase for her a completely computer-controlled prosthetic leg, the first of its type.

Karau, 21, might not exactly be "The Bionic Woman," but like the character portrayed in the 1970s' television show by Lindsay Wagner, she is athletic, blonde and attractive. And she overflows with optimism despite twice surviving a rare form of cancer that threatened her life and cost her the limb.

"I absolutely will be onstage again, but I know it is going to take time," Karau said, her blue-green eyes widening with excitement. "I still have all of my aspirations. And now I have my whole life ahead of me."

That future was in serious doubt in May 2003 when, after undergoing eight months of chemotherapy and radiation, doctors told her the only two choices left to her were amputation of her afflicted leg or death.

"I told them no to the surgery," Karau said. "I was in complete denial so my response was purely on emotion. I just could not see myself living without a leg. I was not ready for it. How can anyone be? I thought I'd rather die."

But, Karau said, when "it sunk in" she came to her senses and determined that "I would stay positive and I would be fine."

The clincher to having the surgery to remove her leg came after doctors told Karau of a highly technological prosthesis called the C-Leg that is being used to replace legs of soldiers wounded in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"I looked at it on the Internet and was amazed to see how far technology has advanced in the area of artificial legs," she said.

Unlike old prosthetic devices, where the artificial knee had to be locked and unlocked manually, the sensors and microprocessors in the C-Leg do that automatically for more fluid movement.

What Karau, a Northern Nevadan, did not know -- and did not learn until after her leg was cut off -- was that the C-Leg costs $45,000 and that her health insurance company would not cover the expense.

"The artistic director of a play I was in (Stephanie Arrigotti) called the Reno Gazette-Journal to see if they would be interested in doing a story on me, hoping that it would generate public support," Karau said. "I was just amazed that so many people responded to help me."

Local businesses raised $10,000. Arrigotti held fundraisers that brought in $5,000. The public donated thousands more. And Reno businessman Geoffrey Edwards donated the over-the-top $26,000 that enabled Karau to get her C-Leg.

Karau, who is still learning how to walk on her new leg, gets around with the help of a cane. And, she says, she gets fatigued, especially early in the day.

Still, Karau's recovery from surgery has been quick. Her family and other friends say that, given her ambition and many talents, they are not surprised to see her get back in the flow of things so soon after the amputation.

"She is just incredible," said Karau's father, Ric Karau, a telecommunications project manager in Reno. "A lot of people do not face in a lifetime what she has had to deal with so young. Alicia sets her mind to doing something and she has a will to get it done."

Jessica Kerivan, 20, of Reno, who first met Alicia when both were in the choir at singing camp in Lake Tahoe seven years ago, agrees that her friend "gives no less than 110 percent" in whatever she does.

"She is such an inspiration," said Kerivan, who suffers from cystic fibrosis and says she receives as much encouragement from Karau as she gives her.

"When she was told she had to have the amputation or die, I told her that I wanted her to live, to one day attend my wedding, to remain a part of my life. I believe our illnesses have drawn us closer and that our friendship and support for each other has made both of us stronger."

And while Karau seems well adjusted to her fate -- she does not receive psychological counseling over the loss of her leg -- she has one major fear.

"It's weird that, given all I have been through, one thing that still bothers me is that I have these constant feelings that no man is ever going to want me because I have lost a leg and that I will never get married or have babies," Karau said. "I know that may sound silly, but that's just how I feel."

Karau's family and friends believe she eventually will overcome that fear as she gets used to her situation and rebuilds the self-confidence that she exuberated on the stage as a performer.

"I told her that in one way it is a good thing because she will never have to deal with the jerks who will hit on her just to get her to go to bed with them," Kerivan said. "The guy she will marry will be a caring man who can get past the fact she is missing a leg and really see the great person she is."

Alicia Karau began dancing at age 3. Three years later she and her older sister Kristin were students at Reno's Dancescape, then-owned by her mother, Laurel Chabot, who today is a dance instructor in Florida.

Alicia excelled in ballet, tap and jazz -- and in life.

"As a small child she was always fascinated by movement and was always looking at things in a different way than other people," Chabot said.

"When she was three, she told me she could tell when it was time to feed the dogs by the color of the sky. As she got older she would build small devices to trap ants, observe them and then let them go on their way."

Karau's potential career in entertainment blossomed when she was a teenager. She took up modeling and acting, appearing on a commercial for The Game Show Network.

In 2002, while attending Reed High School where she was a cheerleader, Karau was diagnosed with a malignant form of a combination of two rare cancers -- synovial sarcoma and a peripheral nerve sheath tumor.

Still, Karau tried to carry on as usual and, in June of that year, landed the female singing lead in the Western Nevada Musical Theatre Company's Carson City production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat."

That August, she moved to Las Vegas to attend UNLV as a broadcasting major after doctors gave her a clean bill of health.

Then, in October 2003, Karau discovered a lump in the leg -- the cancer had returned. By December it had metastasized.

After four more months of chemotherapy, Karau was told that to save her life her leg would have to go. Surgeons in San Francisco amputated it just above the knee and removed the lump in her groin.

"I cannot tell you the number of times I have said to myself, 'why me?' " said Karau who every day massages her stub to minimize swelling, does situps and other exercises and practices walking on her C-Leg in her one-bedroom Green Valley apartment that she shares with her two cats, El and Gizmo.

As for dancing, her family and other friends say they will not be surprised to see Karau, fake leg and all, performing on some stage some day.

"She probably will not be performing in a Las Vegas showroom, but there is more to dance than physicality," said Chabot, a former professional dancer.

"There will be things Alicia will be limited in doing like intricate ballet moves and jumps. But she will be able to do jazz and could have a great future in musical theatre, where the moves are not so overly taxing. She has an extraordinary will and I believe she will invent new ways to handle dance."

Ric Karau said his daughter "has played the hand she has been dealt with a positive attitude. I believe she will dance again because she has the will and the desire and she will focus on all of the possibilities open to her."

Recent medical tests have determined that Alicia is cancer-free.

She says one of her goals is to one day visit people just after they have undergone amputations to encourage them that there is quality life after surgery.

"I know what I have gone through so I can understand how others feel," Karau said. "I have done several newspaper interviews because I believe that by sharing my story it will help others realize there is hope for everyone."

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