We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful MICAH SPEARS. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with MICAH below.

Hi MICAH, thanks for joining us today. We love heartwarming stories – do you have a heartwarming story from your career to share?

About 30 years ago I had a patient that came into the office after a below knee amputation for a Prosthetic exam. He was 96 years old and felt like his life was over. He was an extreme diabetic who had finally gotten his glucose levels under control. His family was going to place him in a Nursing Home. You could sense that he was having bouts of depression and anxiety. His limb was needing to be prepared for the goal of edema control. This would control phantom pain and if he wanted to prepare him for a prosthesis.

After introducing myself to him and his family, I asked him if he wanted to walk again. He told me that mister if you could get me walking again you would be my hero-Medicare requires a strong desire to ambulate as one of the many prerequisites for coverage. I explained the need for a prosthetic shrinker and what it does in preparation for prosthetic care. He agreed so I fit him with the shrinker which is a compressive cloth tube with a sewn end. I made him an appointment for 1 week follow up.

One week later he was wearing the shrinker. This demonstrated compliance. Further down the road I measured and fabricated a prosthesis for him. He exceeded my expectations and was able to ambulate without any assistive devices. He went daily to his local Senior Citizens Center. He lived at home alone without any caretakers until he passed away at the age of 106. He sent me many referrals and finally had to slow down just prior to his passing.

I still think of him to this day.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

When I was 12, one of the neighborhood friends father made bunches of money. He bought him a dirt bike. He was 14 at the time. I used to watch him carve out trails in our neighborhood. He was creating jumps, sharp turns and really cool places to ride. I would get on those trails with my bicycle. One day, while creating a new trail he made a jump and there was a 25 foot drop to the side of a river. He landed and broke his femur-thigh bone. This cut the femoral artery and basically killed the lower section of his leg. After the surgery, his mom brought me up to the hospital to sort of give him some sense of normalcy. Later on, I found out that he had a closed head injury which changed his personality.

Fast forward. I high school, they had career day and one of the local community colleges offered Orthotics and Prosthetics. I always wanted to be in the medical field and thought to myself why not. I had watched my friend go through the prosthetic processes and receiving a prosthetic leg. This was when an associate degree was all that was required for us to take the exams. I took the courses and in 1979 was employed at Baptist Memorial Hospital’s Brace Shop. In 1982 I was hired at a competitor’s office and the person who trained me was the man that made my friends prosthesis way back then. Lter on my old friend became my patient. He didn’t know who I was after the traumatic brain injury.

In 2003 I decided to go lout on my own. I had a 200 mile, 2-year non-compete contract. I opened a practice 234 miles away and successfully kept that business operating until 2012. I never will place any employee under an employment non-compete contract. I feel it’s wrong and having to uproot my life-will never do that. Besides if someone doesn’t want to work for you, you really don’t want to keep them as the face of your company.

In 2005 I opened my Memphis office. In 2007 one of my competitors sold me their practice. I had 23 total employees. When the economy crashed in 2009, I was forced to let people leave. The main core people of the company stayed with me. We have steadily been blessed and our practice has grown exponentially.

One of my old friends, Tien Tran, CP, FAAOP, that I worked with from 1982 until 2003 has joined us. He specializes in very hard to fit people including upper extremity, hip disarticulation, specialized above and below knee amputees.

One of our other friends, Sandra Fletchall, OTR/L, CHT, MPA, FAOTA, has joined us. She is world renowned as a Rehabilitation Specialist. Prior to joining our staff, she was the Rehab Director of the Burn Unit at Regional One Trauma Hospital.

Both Sandy and Tien receive numerous referrals from Workers Compensation Insurance companies.

Besides amputees, we work with Podiatrist, Orthopedic and Neurosurgeons. We utilize state of the art, NASA inspired technology in all of our products and devices. As stated earlier, I am truly blessed, and I know this.

We have 3-3D printers that we utilize in our practice. I am still learning some of the multiple abilities that they offer. We also provide micro-processor technology in our prosthetic devices. These are covered by Medicare, several insurance companies and Workers Compensation. With that said, not everyone is a candidate of this technology.

We utilize computer based, CAD/CAM foot Orthotic management. We place a patient’s foot on a machine that will send specific measurements to a laptop computer. On the laptop, we can manipulate the patients pressure points to design a pair of custom foot insoles. This custom design is sent to a carving machine which can make a pair of in-complete insoles in 20 minutes. Our Orthotist has few adjustments to make prior to finishing them.

Can you open up about how you managed the initial funding?

I was dead broke and met with my bank representative, she asked me if I ever thought of having a home equity loan? They set me up with one. It took me 7 months to get my first payment from Medicare. I didn’t realize all of the hoops you have to jump through.

In 2007 when a competitor asked me if I would buy his practice, I went to the same banker, and they gave me a 5-year interest only loan which was basically a balloon note. The principal would start being paid at the 5-year mark. In 2009 when the economy crashed, the bank demanded all of their loan to be repaid. They were pretty rude with their demand. I asked them if I should just hand them my keys and walk away. They then became somewhat reasonable. They offered me a 3-year high interest note. The banker that I was working with moved to another bank. By being blessed, I survived and thrived.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The most effective strategy for growing clientele, is to be honest, straight forward and if you cannot provide what someone wants, let them know the truth. Trust in the Lord.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.SpearsPandO.com
• Facebook: Spears Prosthetics and Orthotics
• Youtube: Spears Prosthetics

Image Credits

credit Spears Prosthetics Prosthetics, LLC