Volume 11 • Number 6 • November/December 2001
No Room for Negatives
by Christina DiMartino
Photographer
considers
amputation of
her leg the best
solution to years
of suffering
Ruth Petzold received her first
camera as a gift when she was 7
years old. Her affection for photography was immediate, and
by the time she was a teen she’d
become the official photographer for family and friends.
As she offered her services for
weddings and other events, she
hoped her avocation would one
day become her vocation.
Ruth’s career path took an initial turn in a different direction,
however. She was educated
as a medical technologist, but
in 1972, change once again
entered her life. “I had some
business cards printed, and soon
I was finally on my way to a
photography career,” she says.
“Other than high-tech lighting
[studio portraits] I engage in all
types of photography. But my
greatest love is taking pictures
of wildlife, especially underwater. Nature and swimming was
always a large part of my life,
so it was a perfect arena for my
work.”
In 1965 Ruth began scuba
diving, and in 1967 she bought
her first underwater camera. “It
wasn’t until the mid-1980s that
I became serious about filming
underwater,” she says. “I began
traveling around the world
working with marine biologists
who were doing underwater
research as I documented everything with photographs.”
Ruth’s photographs ultimately appeared in National
Geographic, Ocean Realm and
many other national magazines.
She often accompanied Dr.
Eugenie Clark, professor and
head of marine biology at the
University of Maryland, in
dives. Clark is famous for her
marine documentaries and is
commonly known as the “shark
lady” to her peers and others
involved in marine research.
Despite her exciting career
and great love of nature, Ruth’s
years weren’t filled completely
with “say cheese” expressions.
In 1958 she was involved in a
serious car accident that caused
a bad break in both the tibia
and fibula in her left leg. It was
the early years of orthopedic
knowledge, and surgeons
placed plates and screws in the
leg. She spent the better part of
a year in a cast.
“For someone as athletic as
I am, it was devastating,” Ruth
says. “Besides swimming competitively, I held diving championships and had horseback
riding titles. The leg break was
a major blow and curtailed my
activities almost completely.
Because it stayed in a cast so
long, my ankle solidified and
was never really right again.
Despite it, I took up skiing.
Unfortunately I broke the leg
again in a skiing accident, but
this time I also broke my ankle.
It was merely too much for one
leg to take.”
In fact, Ruth’s ankle was more
than broken; it was shattered.
She says from that point on her
left leg was shaped like a sausage, likely because of the plate
that was inserted eight years
earlier after the car accident.
“By 1969 the nerve pressure was so bad that I couldn’t
walk,” Ruth says. “I went to an
orthopedic surgeon who told me
the screws were coming loose.
He suggested the plate and
screws be removed. I was back
in a cast and on crutches for
some time after that surgery.”
Despite the trauma Ruth’s
leg suffered, her energy level
was high and her work continued. By the early 1980s
she had become well known
in her field and was traveling
more extensively than ever. “I
was in New Guinea working
on an adventure photography
project,” she says. “My ankle
grew increasingly stiffer while
I was there. It caused me to stop
some of my more aggressive
activities, including skiing and
tennis. Diving, however, was
a great outlet because it didn’t
put pressure on my leg. As time
passed I focused more on the
water, and ultimately it became
my total passion.”
The traumas caused by her
leg and ankle, however, were
far from over. In 1998, during
a sailing trip with her brother,
Ruth’s knee froze up, making it
impossible for her to even walk.
“An orthopedic surgeon scoped
the knee,” she says, “and I had
two surgeries within six weeks.
By then the entire leg had
stiffened. I went to several doctors for opinions. Some of them
suggested fusing the ankle, but
that had already been done.
That’s when I began investigating an ankle-joint replacement
procedure.”
Ruth traveled to Sioux Falls,
South Dakota, in 1999 to see a
Volume 11 • Number 6 • November/December 2001
No Room for Negatives
doctor who was instrumental in
developing the artificial ankle
joint. “He said I was a perfect
candidate,” Ruth continues.
“However, it turned out that
I wasn’t. After eight months
of intensely painful therapy
following the surgery, I still had
minimal motion in my ankle.
Still, I felt I had to go on with
my life and even went on a
couple of dive trips. But within
a short amount of time the ankle
began to swell. I discovered
I had a staph infection in the
ankle called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
(MRSA). I underwent two more
surgeries to open and flush out
the area, but the infection continued. The ankle replacement
procedure was so new that the
doctor I was seeing in Florida,
my winter home, didn’t know
how to get the prosthetic out.
He conferred with the surgeon
who did the joint replacement
surgery, but was told to leave it
in. They put me on an extremely
potent antibiotic in a drip form,
but it was so strong that it damaged my entire resistance and
nearly killed me.”
Ruth soon returned to
Michigan, her permanent home,
feeling that doctors who were
more familiar with her condition might help her plight. She
entered a hospital where doctors
conferred laboriously over what
to do for her. “In the meantime
my body erupted with a reaction
to the antibiotic,” she says.
“Doctors put me on antihistamines to combat the effects,
which they said were burning
me from inside out. It took
four months for the reaction to
subside, and even today I have
itchy patches on my skin that
haven’t gone away.”
After nine professional opinions, Ruth decided the prosthesis had to be removed. She
traveled back to Florida in the
fall of 2000, almost a year and a
half after it had been implanted,
to a specialist who conferred
with her Michigan doctors.
“They were all in agreement,
except for the doctor who put it
in,” she says. “For him, this was
a message of defeat that meant
his prosthetic had failed.”
Ruth says she leaned heavily
on her spiritualism during these
dark days, even speaking with
her deceased father. “I could
feel my dad’s presence,” she
says, “so I spoke with him about
what I should do. I even took
his spirit with me on a diving
trip so he could sense my love
for the water and photography.
His message continually told
me that the prosthesis had to go
– even though it would mean
my leg being shorter and stiff
for the rest of my life.”
While making plans for
the removal surgery, however,
Ruth happened to watch a
television documentary where
a young athlete with a bilateral
amputation was participating
in a triathlon. “He slid down
a waterfall, swam across a
lagoon, then put on a prosthesis
and began rowing a boat down
a stream,” she says. “At that
moment I made a conscious
decision to go on with my life.
That man was free – much freer
than I. He could move, train
his body and go out into life to
experience anything he chose.
Even with both legs, I didn’t
have that advantage. That’s
when I decided that amputation was the only answer. That
young man proved to me that
there is indeed quality life after
one loses a limb.”
Ruth contacted her doctors,
and a surgical appointment was
scheduled for January 2001.
Months after her below-theknee amputation, Ruth reports
being happier than she has been
in years.
“I’ve already been diving,”
she says. “I swim regularly, play
golf and have plans to kayak
and get back to biking soon. I
have every intention of doing
everything I want, and I have no
regrets about making the decision to have my leg removed. It
was the best possible solution
to end the trauma I lived with
for years. Life is good now, and
I realize how wonderful it is to
merely walk outdoors and smell
the flowers.”
Phantom pain caused Ruth
considerable discomfort for a
few months, but as soon as she
began wearing her prosthesis it stopped. “The stump is
still shrinking,” she says, “so
I’m being patient regarding a
perfect fit. I have a wonderful
prosthetist, Alan Finnieston,
at the Arthur Finnieston Clinic
in Miami. He’s working on a
diving leg for me now.”
Some people look at losing
a limb as the end of an active
life, but Ruth says she’s learned
it meant a new beginning for
her. “I’m finally free of all the
problems I’ve had since 1958
and figure nearly half a century
is enough for anyone to suffer,”
she says. “I can understand
the shock people go through
when they lose a limb, but it’s
sometimes the reality of life.
It’s what is, and we must learn
to deal with it. Most important,
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however, is to realize there’s a
wonderful life out there waiting
for us. It’s a funny little thing,
but I’m now wearing shorts for
the first time. My real leg was
so ugly that I’d always felt selfconscious. These days there just
doesn’t seem to be any space in
my brain for negativity.”
Besides attending support
groups, Ruth says many others
with amputations have offered
her tremendous inspiration
– and she isn’t shy about offering advice to others. “I met
a woman at the prosthetist’s
office recently,” she says. “We
engaged in a conversation
where I told her what I’d been
through and how happy I am
now – how truly blessed I feel.
She wrote me a letter soon after
to say it was wonderful to meet
me. ‘Your appearance, smile,
snap and walk are incredible,’
the woman said. She added that
if I could do it, so could she.
Then she thanked me for the
positive reinforcement. This is
what I’d like to do for others
with amputations.”
Ruth says she recently mentioned to a friend that she might
drop out of aerobics due to lack
of time. “My friend said, ‘You
can’t do that – you’re inspiring
everyone around you.’” 