SoftCrutch™ Company History: SoftCrutch™ Padded Crutch Cover founder, Stephanni Myers shares the story behind the product.

"We have a unique, even bizarre family history. Before my fourth child, Marissa, was born we had never had an accident or surgery in our family requiring a cast. However, due to serious birth defects, when she was only three days old, she was fitted with her first casts. They were on both tiny legs, from her toes to her hips. Over the next eighteen months, the cast was changed every few days. More than a dozen surgeries on her legs and knees kept her on crutches or in a wheelchair through out most of her life. "

"Because of her needs, coupled with accidents and injuries of the other children and even myself, I became all too familiar with the problems of being on crutches over the next several years. From the first, I asked doctors if there were any solution to the pain the crutches gave to the underarm area. I was repeatedly told there was nothing I could buy. "

"Each year, broken bones, sprained ankles, knee surgeries, etc create hundreds of thousands of short-term crutch users. Within hours, each and every one of these users discovers the agony of being on crutches. Most say that the pain of using crutches is sometimes greater than the pain of the original injury. One's underarms become very sore and even chaffed and bruised. The discomfort drives many to 'cheat' and stop using the crutches before their doctor recommends."

"For most people, the experience on crutches is so short-lived and unusual that the need to find a solution is quickly forgotten. Not so for my family. Armed with more experience than the average 60-70 mothers, I was faced again and again with the prospect of helping a child or myself combat the pain and agony of being on crutches. I experimented with several options to cushion the area under the arm. After much trial and error, SoftCrutch™ Padded Crutch Cover was born. At last, something that was comfortable and easy to use and could be changed quickly and washed."

"The product was created for use within our family, but observers urged me to market the product so others can take advantage of a unique solution born from unusual circumstances."

Brief mention of a few of our accidents:

"I broke my leg watching a basketball game. My sons, Zach and Josh, both broke arms skating. Matt's arm was broken falling off a church building while retrieving a soccer ball. Three times I've had children hit by cars. Curiously, I was run over by one when I was a child. Spencer wedged a 6-inch tinker toy in his throat? McKenna broke her foot in dance class and Marissa broke hers by jumping on the tramp."

"We've suffered numerous concussions. Among them, Matt being kicked in the head as a soccer goalie, mine diving headfirst into a tree to break Marissa's fall from about twenty feet. Josh's from a snowboarding accident and another for me in a friendly, family volleyball game. When Marissa slipped on ice, she suffered a scraped face and serious concussion. Other slips on the ice have resulted in torn ligaments, a dislocated hip, and another concussion."

"I can still feel the terror of watching three-year-old, Zach, go into convulsions when his head was impaled on the top of a chain link fence. There was the time Josh came up missing from the hospital after having his nose nearly chopped off in a gardening accident. I broke all of my fingers on both hands in a freak accident with a baby stroller. Zach lost the end of his finger in an industrial mishap and another time part of his thumb in a table saw. When Matt came home from the hospital after a bike crash he looked like a mummy with his yards and yards of gauze wrapped around his entire body."

"What happened the time Marissa jumped from a twenty-foot ladder in an attempt to grab onto the electrical wires? Fortunately, she missed being electrocuted and suffered only a broken arm when she plunged to the ground. Four of my children have scars across their forehead, results of stitches from four separate accidents. Once, only minutes after leaving the home, I was inspired to return immediately and found my youngest child, then five year old McKenna with a pencil stabbed into the back of her throat after falling while one was in her mouth."

"Marissa's hand was crushed in a car door, and we've had hundreds of stitches. Zach's eye cut on the corner of a table, Matt's torn on a nail. I still cringe as I recall hearing then two-year-old Josh reprimanding one-year-old Matt for taking my good knife. "Give it to me." He grabbed the blade. In defiance, Matt shouted, "No" and pulled away, slicing the forbidden knife through Josh's palm before I could reach them."

"The list goes on."

"I feel like I should get an honorary emergency room doctor's degree! Black widow bites, dog bites and scorpion stings could even be mentioned. The truly amazing part is these are only some of the incidents occurring in ONE family - and the youngest is only twelve years old."

"What next?"