No Hands...No Feet...No Problem?

Wayne and Marge
Lund never had a clue
that their second son
would be different.
On their farm outside
of Rolfe, Iowa, Wayne
had a typical operation
for northwestern Iowa, a
mixture of livestock and
land in feed crops.
Besides keeping a few
hundred acres of land in
beans and corn, the Lund
farm typically had 300
head of sheep and 200
head of hogs. Marge
was a homemaker,
taking care of her first
son Rob, a toddling
three-year-old. Both
were extremely healthy
people and there was no family history of any birth defects.
Neither drank, smoked or took any kind of pills, including
aspirin.
On April 5, 1954, Marge went into labor with her second
child. Wayne fired up the ’48 Ford and drove the 30 miles of
mostly gravel roads to St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital in Fort
Dodge. Her pregnancy was normal. She had consulted a
physician at three-and-a-half months and received continued
care thereafter. No abnormalities developed, and she never
vomited. There were no shocks or injuries during her term and
her health was listed as “normal” before and after giving birth.
The delivery was a quick and routine, with Don being born
at 7:12 a.m., shortly after the couple arrived. Total labor time:
two hours. “Color good, cries well,” begins the remarks
section on the hospital’s Newborn Record form. His weight
was 7 pounds, 6 ounces, and his length 20 inches. He was born
headfirst, did not convulse and nursed immediately.
What wasn’t routine or normal was Don.
No hands, no feet. A quadruple congenital amputee. A
freak of nature. One in a million. A joke for the politically
incorrect. A gift from God.
Don’s right leg ended with a partial kneecap, and his left
leg was formed down to his ankle. His right arm ended at his
wrist, and his left arm was an inch or so shorter. All four limbs
ended in stumps.
However, Marge had an abiding unshakable faith that
God’s will had been done and she accepted Don without
question. Don would be brought into the family and raised as
closely as possible to any “normal” child. “On the day we took
Don home,” Wayne recalls, “a nun came up to us and said
‘God does not give you a burden you cannot bear’.”
As it turned out, Don was far from a burden.
Under the Physical Development section on a medical
history form the Lunds filled out when Don was a three-yearold,
it’s noted that he rolled over at two-and-a-half months, sat
alone at six months, began speaking at nine months, pulled up
on furniture at 10-and-a-half months and talked in sentences at
22 months.