Brandon Holiday and Tyson
Brandon Holiday grew up athletic – playing various sports, tennis, baseball and training in martial arts. He also grew up with Systemic Lupus, Primary Addison’s and a blood clotting condition (Antiphosolipid Syndrome). After college, he became a police officer but an injury in the line of duty and medical complications from Systemic Lupus forced him to leave the police force. The changing symptoms of his disease made it necessary for him to adjust his life. Lupus is an autoimmune disease where the body attacks itself and causes symptoms like chronic fatigue, pleurisy, high fevers, restlessness, and loss of kidney function.
In 2006, after four months in the hospital battling with blood clots, wound care and hyperbaric chamber treatments, doctors had to amputate his left leg below the knee. Reaching out for help facing his challenges dealing with his injuries and disease led him Challenged Athletes Foundation who awarded him a grant to travel and attend the Extremity Games. It was life-changing for him.
“I realized that there had to be more than just accepting you’re depressed and here is some medicine to help.”
When Lester Sabolich opened his prosthetic clinic in Oklahoma City in 1947, he just wanted to make a change in lives. His son, John, grew up watching his father design prostheses and was inspired to join the business. He attended New York University and became a certified prosthetist-orthotist, eventually taking over his father’s business in the 1980’s..