Aaron Kent’s life changed in an instant. One moment, he was at work on a forklift; the next, he was fighting for his life. A dramatic accident left him with a below-the-knee amputation, and soon after, doctors had to go above the knee to prevent infection.
“It was dramatic,” Aaron recalls, his voice steady but quiet. “I felt a lot of fear. I didn’t really feel pain at first because my brain couldn’t process it. I just knew my life had shifted, but I didn’t know how to face what came next.”
The first days after surgery were a blur. Nurses moved around the hospital room, machines beeped, and Aaron lay in bed trying to make sense of his new reality. “I remember looking at my leg and thinking, ‘This isn’t how my life was supposed to be,’” he says. “I was scared, confused, and exhausted. I didn’t know if I could ever walk again.”
Learning to walk again became his new challenge. Something most people take for granted. Just standing, moving, and navigating a hallway suddenly felt like a mountain. “Every step was a lesson,” Aaron says. “I had to relearn balance, how to trust myself, how to walk again with this new part of me. And it was harder than I imagined.”
It was during this uncertain time that Aaron found Methodist. “From the first day, the people there felt like family,” he says. “Taylor Hankins, my prosthetist, became more than a prosthetist. He became a brother. He helped me with liners, sockets, and tailoring everything to my gait. He made me feel like I could move forward. Without him, I wouldn’t have felt normal walking again.”
Aaron remembers the first time he put on his prosthesis. “I felt like Captain Ahab with a peg leg,” he laughs. “It was strange, awkward, even a little frightening. But Taylor kept me laughing, kept me confident. He told me, ‘Aaron, you’re a natural. You’ll walk just fine.’ And somehow, I believed him.”
The prosthesis itself, an X3 microprocessor device, quickly became more than a walking tool. It became freedom. “It adapts to my steps, my speed, even the terrain,” he explains. “I can climb hills, walk on gravel, and go up and down stairs without fear. Methodist didn’t just give me a prosthesis. They gave me independence.”
Relearning to move also meant rediscovering joy. Aaron picked up archery, a hobby he hadn’t tried before, and it quickly became a source of both therapy and fun. “I just decided one day to try it, and I couldn’t stop. Now it’s part of my life. It’s therapeutic, it’s fun, it’s mine,” he says, smiling. “It gave me something to focus on besides the accident, something I could control and enjoy.”
Family and faith were also central to Aaron’s recovery. “My mom, my sisters, and my wife were always there. Having a strong support system helped me push myself further, try harder, and not give up when things got difficult,” he says. “And faith, keeping that at the center, made a huge difference.”
“One thing I’ve learned on this journey is to stay positive, lean on the people who care about you, and take it one step at a time. Life after limb loss can be full again. You’ll have hard days, but each stride counts. And don’t be afraid to try new things, to rediscover what makes you feel alive.”
Now, more than a decade after his accident, Aaron walks confidently, lives actively, and embraces the life he has rebuilt. “I feel liberated,” he says. “I’m not scared to walk on different terrain. I’m willing to learn new things. Every step I take reminds me that I’ve come through something hard, and I can keep moving forward.”
“My name is Aaron Kent,” he says, a quiet pride in his voice, “and I’m so glad I made it Methodist.”
