At approximately 7:00am this morning (Florida, USA time), Anthony Barr, President of the Barr Foundation, passed away as the result of cardiac damage suffered from a heart attack last week.
I initially came into contact with Anthony (Tony) prior to my amputation surgery in December 2003. He explained how a new website was being put together about the Ertl Procedure, and he asked if I would submit my bio to be included in the site after my surgery. After the surgery, and considering how happy I was with how my quality of life was improving, I was more than happy to submit my bio for inclusion.
Fast forward about a year. The webmaster of ErtlReconstruction.com was preparing for for a crazy bike ride across Europe, so I offered to take over the website while he was gone. This led to Tony and I being in contact on an almost daily basis! While we primarily stayed in contact via email, we telephoned each other about once a month to bounce ideas off each other.
In March 2006, Tony had me fly to Chicago to give a short presentation to the Barr Foundation Board of Directors about the website's success. What was supposed to be a 15 minutes presentation (warm-up for the keynote speaker) turned into a 30 minute presentation, with a 20 minute Q&A afterward since the keynote speaker wasn't able to attend.
In short, the Barr Foundation exists to:
1. Assist amputees in the US acquire prosthetic components, when they are financially unable to assist themselves. This is done via financial donations to the foundation.
2. Assist amputees in third world countries with acquiring prosthetic components. This is done via both financial and component donations to the foundation.
3. Promote the Ertl Procedure to be a standard procedure to be available to all patients in need of an amputation surgery, due to diabetes, injury, etc.
Please keep Tony's wife Eva, and the rest of their family in your prayers at this time.
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