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`7/8/12 St. Cloud Times (St. Cloud, Minn.) A13
`2012 WLNR 15654408
`Loaded Date: 07/26/2012
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`St. Cloud Times (St. Cloud, MN)
`Copyright 2012 Gannett
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`July 8, 2012
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`Section: Money
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`accidentalinspiration
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` July 8, 2012
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`"He was passionate about finding something better out there for himself early on in life and he's been working on it for
`other people ever since. It's been rewarding, but it wasn't easy."
`
`Barb Caspers, about her husband, inventor Carl Caspers
`
` StCloud StCloud
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` SARTELL — Carl Caspers wonders what his life would've turned out to be if, on a fateful day in 1959 — when he
`was 18 — he hadn't accidentally shot himself in the leg.
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` With a report from a single-action .22-caliber pistol, his future was forever altered.
`
` The bullet entered near his left knee and spiraled around the tibia toward his foot, destroying blood vessels and nerves
`along the way.
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` Despite the efforts of some of the best doctors in the Twin Cities, it became clear Caspers faced a decision: keep his
`leg, even though it would never respond properly, or face amputation.
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` "My father was an orthopedic surgeon, and one of his good friends, Dr. Richard Jones, performed the surgery,"
`Caspers recalled recently, half-gazing at the Mississippi River flowing past his beautiful home. "They opened my leg
`from the ankle up but the tissue was dying from a lack of blood supply. I spiked a temperature of 104-105 degrees and
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`© 2014 Thomson Reuters. No Claim to Orig. US Gov. Works.
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`they put refrigeration blankets on me. It was a pretty miserable time. That's why, when my dad explained my options,
`I was ready for some relief."
`
` Complicating matters, he'd lost 25 pounds and was growing dangerously fond of the morphine he was given to control
`his pain.
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` "I elected to have the amputation, and I think it was harder for my parents than it was for me," Caspers said.
`
` It gave him inspiration, the hard way. And Caspers, who described himself as "not a very good student" at Edina High
`School, eventually found success through his limitations. He got into the business of orthotics and prosthetics and,
`more than 30 years ago, took over operation of Northwestern Artificial Limb and Brace in St. Cloud. Eighteen patents
`later, and nine years after he sold another company, TEC Interface Systems, to a German-based international health
`care company, Caspers is still at it. When a noncompete clause expired, he started Environmentally Managed Systems,
`through which he's seeking to produce more innovations — even though he's 71 and long ago could've chosen to live
`off his laurels.
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` All of that enters into why Caspers recently was inducted into the Minnesota Inventors Hall of Fame.
`
` "He fits in beautifully and what he's done is really impressive to me," said Raymond Walz, an attorney who is sec-
`retary of the hall. "He took a problem and said, 'I don't want to live like this,' and he went out and did something about
`it. That's inspiring to anyone with an inventive mind."
`
` Fateful event
`
` Caspers says he wasn't always inventive, though he was mechanically inclined at an early age. He grew up in Min-
`neapolis and developed an interest in sports, including speedskating, and began tinkering with cars once he got old
`enough to drive — even participating in an occasional drag race. By spring of his senior year, he was coming down
`from a high of placing third in the 145-pound class at the state wrestling meet and was making plans for prom.
`
` But guns also were an interest. He'd joined a group of shooters who liked to practice quick-draws — like in the old
`cowboy movies. Most of his friends used blanks, but a few — including Caspers — shot live rounds. One day, with a
`few hours to spare, he drove to a desolate spot in the river bottoms near Chaska to practice.
`
` "I meandered out there and had my gun and belt on," Caspers recalled. "I was out there for about a half-hour. Eve-
`rything was fine until one draw I caught the barrel in the holster."
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` When the gun was fired, the pain was instant and excruciating. He also began bleeding profusely. He half-dragged
`himself the quarter-mile back to his car. Once he got back to the road, he tried to flag down other vehicles. None
`stopped.
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` "I was covered in blood by then and I had a gun on me," Caspers said. "I don't think I would've stopped, either."
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`© 2014 Thomson Reuters. No Claim to Orig. US Gov. Works.
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` He tried to drive himself to get help and began feeling light-headed. So, he pulled into a farmhouse where a woman
`and her daughter helped him elevate his leg with a tourniquet and called an ambulance and his father.
`
` The next time he left the hospital, it was with a 3¼-inch stump where his lower left leg used to be.
`
` Finding direction
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` After high school, Caspers was at a loss. He briefly enrolled at St. Cloud State University, then worked at a sports and
`health club in St. Louis Park and a pizza place. Finally, he landed in a foundry, balancing for long parts of the day on
`a peg leg — like a pirate — because that was the prosthesis he found most tolerable.
`
` Fate did him a couple of good turns, however. George Botko made Caspers' first workable prosthetic limb. On one of
`his visits to Botko Artificial Limb near Lake Street and Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis, Caspers hit it off with
`someone who would become a mentor.
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` "George didn't have any family and he thought I might be good in this business," Caspers said. "He asked me, 'Would
`you like to work here?' I found my life's calling."
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` Then a friend went off to college and asked Caspers to look after his girlfriend while he was away. That was Barb
`Anderson, whom Caspers knew and occasionally had double-dated with in high school. Before long, she became Barb
`Caspers and has been his companion ever since. Last weekend, they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.
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` "His personality is passion," Barb Caspers said. "He was passionate about finding something better out there for
`himself early on in life and he's been working on it for other people ever since. It's been rewarding, but it wasn't easy."
`
` For a while, they lived in a 12-foot-wide trailer in Lakeville, where Barb said stacks of envelopes — mostly bills —
`covered the kitchen table. Meanwhile, Carl spent his first year in the business mostly watching Botko. Artificial limbs
`were made entirely by hand then, usually from carved wood. Prosthetics had not advanced much since World War II.
`To make this his career, Caspers knew he needed more training. He applied at Northwestern University for a two-year
`course in prosthetics, got a stipend from the school and borrowed the rest to pay his way.
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` He became a certified prosthetist in 1970, then four years later a certified prosthetist orthotist. By then he'd taken over
`the business from Botko and was on his way toward making a name for himself.
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` The challenge
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` The drawback to a conventional weight-bearing prosthetic device is that mobility is limited and often painful. Re-
`peated pressure on the stump forces body fluids up into the leg, eventually shrinking the size of the limb and loosening
`the prosthesis.
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`© 2014 Thomson Reuters. No Claim to Orig. US Gov. Works.
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` "You could have one that fit perfectly and as you wore it and the day wore on, it would be like the difference between
`having your shoes tied and having the laces undone," Caspers said.
`
` He never considered giving up his passion for hunting. So it became a longtime crusade to find the technology that
`would make an artificial leg react more like the real thing. By the mid-1970s, he'd entered a partnership with Dan
`Rowe, an orthotist at Gillette Hospital in St. Paul. They grew their business rapidly to the point where Caspers sold his
`share to follow his Western interests with an orthopedic clinic in Billings, Mont. By then he had a daughter and a son.
`After about four years, though, he realized he wanted to be back in Minnesota, where he felt he had more opportunity
`to innovate.
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` The Caspers came to Central Minnesota in 1978. Ten years later, buoyed by some early attempts at creating a better
`limb system, he formed a second company with his daughter, Cori, and son-in-law Scott Schneider. TEC Interface
`Systems became the launching pad for some of Carl Caspers' designs.
`
` He developed an artificial tissue supplement made from urethane, worn between the prostheses and the residual limb.
`This liner helped minimize painful blisters, rashes and chafing. Previously, most amputees used merely wool or cotton
`socks.
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` "I was at some national meeting, showing these liners and I can still remember some old guys feeling and looking at
`it," Caspers said. "I overhead them say, 'The only reason young guys need this stuff is because they can't make a good
`limb.' That was the difference between us. They had their old way of doing things and I wanted to understand the laws
`of physics and physiology – the compliance, the relationship between the existing limb and the device. It took years to
`get enough exposure and a long time to get people away from the junk they had been using."
`
` Later, with the help of the St. Cloud State University Human Performance Laboratory, he pioneered a vacuum pump
`within the artificial limb to maintain volume and linkage. He got the original idea when visiting a friend at a machine
`shop that was using vacuum to hold pieces of wood while they were milled. The result has been a significant increase
`in mobility and comfort for amputees all over the globe.
`
` "I don't think a lot of people realize that we have someone here who is world-renowned in prosthetics," said Glenn
`Street, a professor at St. Cloud State who made his bioengineering lab available to Caspers as they became close
`friends during the past 15 years. "He's got more than 50 years as a user and he's experienced them from when they
`were basically abusive to where they're at now. He understands what most of the rest of us can't, and he's got a very
`keen mind."
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` Selling out, starting over
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` When Caspers debuted the vacuum-assisted technology at a meeting of about 200 industry experts, he did $1.5 mil-
`lion in sales in a day and a half. Eventually he sold the rights to Otto Bock Healthcare, which at that point had more
`than $100 million in U.S. sales. His son-in-law remained with Otto Bock, where Schneider has risen to be the com-
`pany's regional president for North America. He said the acquisition of Caspers' technology helped Otto Bock achieve
`a ten-fold increase in sales within seven years and raised the company's profile in more than 140 countries, with the
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`© 2014 Thomson Reuters. No Claim to Orig. US Gov. Works.
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`Otto Bock Exhibit 2008 Page 4
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`No. 1 market share in the world as a maker of prosthetics.
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` "This St. Cloud firm Carl created opened up a whole new space in the medical field," Schneider said. "I don't think he
`minds being an amputee as long as he doesn't have to live like an amputee. He's always been a dreamer of big ideas and
`out-of-the-box concepts. My role was to make them marketable and develop a business plan for manufacturing. He
`never looked at profitability. That was my responsibility."
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` Until 2009, Caspers served as a little-used consultant for Otto Bock. While the transition was very profitable for him,
`he grew disillusioned by how much practitioners charge for the devices. But Caspers had no other way of reaching the
`mass market.
`
` About a year ago he jumped back into the field with EMS, through which he has more patents in the works. He's
`working on a hydraulic application to manage the environment of an amputee's limb and socket. His devices are now
`made with technology such as injection molding and computer-aided design — a far cry from the old days of wood
`and rasp. But the stakes have risen, too.
`
` "My first patent cost me about $5,000 to $7,000," Caspers said. "My last one cost more than $100,000. But I'm not a
`businessman. I hire people to help me with that."
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` His wife has become his chief assistant and, while he tinkers with designs in his workshop, a local manufacturer is
`helping with production of new devices. He has fitted amputees at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and occasionally
`makes a trip to assist recently injured war veterans at Camp Lejeune, a Marine Corps base in North Carolina.
`
` "It was never about the money," Caspers said. "Sure, I like making it and spending it. But I just wanted to make a
`better life for myself. Whether I've got a patent or not wouldn't change what I'm doing."
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` Just like having a leg or not wouldn't change the way he lives.
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` What retirement?
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` Caspers plays pickleball and tennis. He rides a motorcycle, like he's done since he was 13, and has traveled 25 years in
`a row to Sturgis, S.D., for the famous rally. He works out daily in a home gym above one of his garages, where he can
`leg press 1,000 pounds. If he's not wearing shorts, it's virtually impossible to tell he has an artificial leg.
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` He shoots skeet and has a collection of guns that still includes the fateful .22. Some of that interest doubtless was
`passed on to his son, Tony, 45, who is a member of the Minneapolis Police SWAT team. Carl and Barb also have three
`grandchildren. One day they might be interested to read a book he is writing with Street. It will detail Caspers' career
`and act as an appeal to surgeons, patients, rehabilitation experts and third-party payers.
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` "So many physicians look at amputation as removing a useless piece of anatomy," Caspers said. "They take it off
`without proper consideration of the future for that individual. If it's done incorrectly, the patient is compromised before
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`© 2014 Thomson Reuters. No Claim to Orig. US Gov. Works.
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`Otto Bock Exhibit 2008 Page 5
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`they even get to me. Then you have insurance companies who want one leg to last you a lifetime. This vacuum
`technology has been around for 12 years now and some of those companies still call it experimental and won't cover
`it."
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` Barb Caspers doesn't expect her husband ever will truly retire.
`
` "Years ago, we'd get someone in the office who wouldn't have the insurance or ability to pay and Carl would take
`them in the next room and later they'd come out with the most expensive feet we made," Barb Caspers said. "He
`always believes people can have a better quality of life. That's why his last words won't be, 'I love you, honey.' They'll
`be, 'What will happen if I just change this strap over here?' "
`
` He dreams of developing a leg with computer sensors so when a patient takes it to an orthotist, it can be plugged in
`and information related to force and other parameters can be downloaded to help determine what adjustments could
`make it better. It's possible, if Caspers has anything to say about it.
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` Which begs the question: Where would he be and what would he have done with his life if not for that accident 53
`years ago?
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` He's told his wife he probably would've wound up pumping gas. In lighter moments, he believes he'd have joined the
`Hells Angels.
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` "I know necessity was the mother of invention for me," Caspers said.
`
` "He was passionate about finding something better out there for himself early on in life and he's been working on it for
`other people ever since. It's been rewarding, but it wasn't easy."
`
` Barb Caspers, about her husband, inventor Carl Caspers
`
` Patents pave path to success
`
` While Carl Caspers has 18 patents for a variety of post-operative products and technology for the prosthetic industry,
`below are the three he considers his biggest contributions:
`
` Prosthetic Liner and Method of Making – U.S. patent, Nov. 2, 1993. Innovation is an interface medium worn on a
`residual limb to protect it from the pressures and shear forces created by wearing a prosthesis.
`
` Hypobarically Controlled Artificial Limb – U.S. patent, Aug. 27, 1996. Innovation is used to control socket pressures
`and suspension of an artificial limb.
`
` Dynamically Activated Variable Response Socket Technology – U.S. patent, Feb. 14, 2012. Innovation, worn as part
`of a prosthetic socket system, increases surface by 100 percent and coefficient of static friction by 400 percent. It is
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`© 2014 Thomson Reuters. No Claim to Orig. US Gov. Works.
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`controlled by sub-atmospheric pressure.
`
`
` ---- INDEX REFERENCES ---
`
`
`COMPANY: CASPERS TIN PLATE CO; TEC INTERFACE SYSTEMS; CARL ZEISS MEDITEC AG
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`NEWS SUBJECT: (Baby Boomer Market (1BA46); Target Markets (1TA03); Business Management (1BU42); Sales
`& Marketing (1MA51))
`
`INDUSTRY: (Healthcare Practice Specialties (1HE49); Musical Instruments (1MU36); Orthopedic Devices & In-
`strumentation (1OR11); Surgical Instrumentation (1SU78); Music (1MU57); Surgery (1SU58); Healthcare (1HE06);
`Surgical Specialties (1SU42); Entertainment (1EN08); Medical Devices (1ME31); Plastic Surgery (1PL18))
`
`REGION: (Minnesota (1MI53); Americas (1AM92); U.S. Midwest Region (1MI19); USA (1US73); North America
`(1NO39))
`
`Language: EN
`
`OTHER INDEXING: (ST CLOUD STATE UNIVERSITY HUMAN PERFORMANCE LABORATORY; ENVI-
`RONMENTALLY MANAGED SYSTEMS) (Raymond Walz; Otto Bock; George Botko; Cori; Tony; Daniel Rowe;
`Scott Schneider; Barb Caspers; Richard Jones; Carl Caspers; Barb Anderson)
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`EDITION: 1
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`Word Count: 2689
`7/8/12 STCLOUDTMS A13
`END OF DOCUMENT
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`© 2014 Thomson Reuters. No Claim to Orig. US Gov. Works.
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`Otto Bock Exhibit 2008 Page 7
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