How This Leg Was Saved

A small medical team is helping some of our best warriors return to the fight

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Sarah Wilson for TIME

An orthosis designed at San Antonio's Brooke Army Medical Center provides a spring-like motion

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This spring, Ryan is back with the Special Forces in Afghanistan, leg and all, running three or more miles at a time and hauling 100-lb. rucksacks with his fellow Green Berets. For the past few months he has been conducting combat patrols over rough terrain. With his orthosis and a lot of training, he's back to about 90% of his former strength. "Given an injury of this significance," he says, "it's the best of a worst-case scenario."

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