Dolphin ‘Winter’ Receives Prosthetic Tail

Researchers designed a prosthetic tail for a baby bottle-nosed dolphin named “Winter.” Winter was found tangled in a crab trap near Cape Canaveral, Florida. The buoy line wrapped around her tail as she tried to escape, causing her blood circulation to cut off in her tail.  Over the next few weeks this caused her tail to fall off piece by piece, leaving Winter with a rounded stump.  With the help of 150 volunteers as well as veterinarians, Winter was nursed back to health. The process took around the clock nursing, and lasted about four months until she was healthy again.

She learned how to swim again, using  side to side motions the same as a shark. She used her flippers as she would normally, which she uses for steering, braking, and to get going. Winter is the only known dolphin to survive the loss of her tail, besides one other dolphin, who lost a piece of her tail.

Dolphins can produce up to 300-400 pounds of force with their tails. Human Olympic swimmers peak around 60-70 pounds of force. Their tails are one of the strongest swimming mechanism in nature. Therefore, inventing a mechanism suitable for Winter became a bigger task than expected.

Kevin Carroll, a prosthetic specialist known to handle the most difficult human amputation cases, dedicated his time to help Winter. Winter’s prosthesis would be the first for a dolphin who lost its tail. The new tail took Kevin Carroll about one and a half years to complete, until he was confident in the outcome. Winter was fitted with a 30 inch silicone, plastic tail, enabling her to swim normally.  Carroll than invented a gel-like sleeve to cling to Winter’s tail, which caused no irritation to Winter’s sensitive skin.

Winter has helped contribute to improving painful prosthesis for humans. Air Force Senior Airman Brian Kolfage lost both of his legs and right hand during an attack in Iraq. Carroll, found the same gel-like sleeve he developed helped soothe Brian Kolfage’s prosthesis greatly. The sleeve can be compared to the same sort of  suction achieved by surgical gloves.

Winter’s story has also made specialists rethink materials to make prosthetics more reliable in saltwater. Winter will remain at Clearwater Marine Aquarium permanently, where she is loved and cared for.  Winter’s rare case  has helped Kolfage, researchers, and a lot of others in her journey to recovery.