Iowa Boy Damian Moore Meets Winter The Dolphin: 'She's Just Like Me'

[Whisper]

Damian Moore was given the opportunity to feed Winter the dolphin during his visit to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

After being inspired by Winter the Dolphin, an 8-year-old boy's emotional reaction in a YouTube video gets him up close and personal with his favorite marine mammal.

Damian Moore had good reason to shed tears of joy in the YouTube video posted by his parents that's gotten more than 15,000 clicks. It brought him to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium all the way from Marion, Iowa.

Damian is a huge fan of Winter. In fact, Winter is somewhat of an idol to him. Damian was born with proximal femoral focal deficiency, a condition where his left femur is 75 percent shorter than normal. As a result, he has had to wear a prosthetic device, which he calls a helper, on his left leg for most of his life.

"She's just like me," Damian said. "Her tail is just like her leg, and I have a helper for my leg too."

Damian's mother, Lisa Moore, says Winter inspires her son. She is also extremely inspired by her son.

"To see someone who can adapt and overcome circumstances like that, it's just amazing," Moore said. "He's worn a helper prosthetic since he was 8 months old and never complains about it."

On his trip, Damian not only got to see Winter, but he got to hold her helper prosthetic.

Christopher Moore, Damian's father, said seeing his son with Winter's tail was incredible.

"He had a hold of her prosthetic, what helps her," he said.

Perhaps the most exciting part of Damian Moore's day was getting to have a little fun with Winter in her pool. Damian was able to stretch with the dolphin and give Winter a snack. The two even had a friendly water fight.

"The dolphins were splashing me," said Damian. "I didn't know I was going to get to meet Winter. I thought I was just going to see her through glass. I actually got to feed her and stuff."

Seeing Winter in person was certainly motivation for Damian. He is scheduled to have surgery on his leg next month. He will be in a cast from the waist down for 6-8 weeks.
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http://baynews9.com/content/news/bay...ets_winte.html

Our son Damian was born with Proximal Femoral Focal Discrepancy, basically his left femur is 75% shorter than his right. He has had a prosthetic since he was eight months old. Damian is now eight and will be having surgery in June to rotate the leg so that his ankle will work as a knee. Damian found out about Winter from a book he found in his school library a year or so before the movie was released. Since then Damian has loved and admired Winter, he sees her as an inspiration and is very attached to her and her story. We wanted to do a family vacation before the surgery and we decided that going to see Winter would be the absolute best thing for Damian.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaXuSSfCkgQ

[Rydo Larsson]

That video honestly brought a tear to my eye was a really nice thing to see :)

[Whisper]

That video honestly brought a tear to my eye was a really nice thing to see :)

thanks me too lol I like happy stories tossed in once in awhile

[VXIII]

Winter's Story:

Winter got entangled in the ropes of a crab trap, on December 10, 2005, in Mosquito Lagoon off the coast of Florida. The rope cut off the supply of blood to her tail. She was spotted and caught by a small fishing boat and a SeaWorld team (with assistance from the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute) which brought her to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Winter (estimated to be about two months old when she was rescued) survived, but her tail flaked off due to the lack of blood for a prolonged period of time.

At first it was thought that Winter would have to learn to swim without a tail, but this forced her to swim with a "side to side" body motion instead of the normal "up and down" motion, and the veterinarians feared that this unusual movement would damage her spine. Kevin Carroll, who had designed prosthetics for other animals (including dogs, an ostrich and a duck), volunteered to help.

Carroll and a team of experts took a year and a half designing and testing a tail for Winter, eventually settling on a simple silicone and plastic tail. A gel-like sleeve was used under the tail, in order to prevent it from irritating Winter's skin. In Winter's case however, both the flukes and the caudal peduncle had been severed, making the task much more difficult.

Lessons learned from Winter also have been applied to human amputees. Carroll used the same gel sleeve concept to ease painful prosthetic limbs for US Air Force Senior Airman Brian Kolfage, who lost both legs and his right hand in a 2004 mortar attack in Iraq. Books and Nintendo DS games have been published about Winter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_(dolphin)

[gee]

Awww... So sweet. Great story

[nopatience]

I love this story!! My kids LOVE the book and the movie. We have gone as far as to do the live feed on Winter's camera (although we've never actually been able to see her). My oldest especially likes that she "helps kids missing arms or legs" feel good. I especially like the compassion and acceptance they learn from stories like this.

[Pete Bondurant]

I'd like to see this little moffie swim with a Great White Shark. Now, that would be interesting.