Bolingbrook Amputee Strives to Get Back on His Own Two Feet

In a span of less than a year, a local man lost his job and lost his left foot.

Bolingbrook’s 36-year-old Al Green has not lost his way, not entirely.

“I’m trying to keep my spirits as high as possible,” Green said. “And what has happened with the donations and the encouragement I’ve received from friends and family has not allowed me to slip into depression.”

The “donations” Green refers to helped him meet his original goal of raising $15,000 through a GoFundMe effort he set up after he returned home Oct. 15 following a lengthy  stay at Edward Hospital in Naperville and two weeks of work at the Marianjoy Rehabilitation Center in Wheaton.

Green had his left leg amputated below the knee on Sept. 25. He is now getting around with the aid of a walker, a wheelchair and a close friend who assists him at nearly every turn.

“This is a whole new world for me,” Green said. “I’ve always worked and I’ve always had insurance. I don’t have the money now to pay for this, that and the other thing. I’m negotiating with the mortgage company right now and trying not to lose my house.

“And there is a part of me who feels despondent at times. To lose your job and your foot in the same year, it deals you a blow. I took a lot of pride in that job. I went to the end of the earth for that company. And, yet, at the end of the day, it was, ‘See ya.’ “

Green spent 15½ years working for a large international banking institution and climbed to the rank of assistant vice president of the bank’s HR contact center before he was let go in a restructuring in March.

Shortly afterward, he discovered that an ulcer on his left foot had grown from the size of the tip of his index finger into a “Monster Foot” monstrosity He hesitated to seek medical attention because he did not have insurance. And he paid a price when a family member “kidnapped” him and took him to the emergency room.

Surgeons told him his foot could not be saved. Under the knife he went and two hours later he was “looking down at a perfectly rounded stump where my left foot used to be.”

Green is hoping to be fitted for a prosthetic replacement in February—and hoping to return to the workforce at some point in 2014, too. He has learned his original goal of raising $15,000 will help him get started—but it will take much more than that to cover the $125,000 he has accumulated so far in medical expenses.

He hopes to find more financial assistance in covering some or all of his outstanding bills. In the meantime, he reluctantly keeps his GoFundMe page open for donations. And he draws strength from the well wishes that come from others pulling for him to get back on his feet, many of them complete strangers.

“I wouldn’t trade that part of this experience for anything—not even to have my leg back,” Green said.

His worldly experiences are vast. Green relays through an anecdote of a business trip he took to India a story about the people he met while setting up a bank call center and how his experiences are helping him cope now.

One of the individuals he met was a nervous young man who couldn’t get a word out out of his mouth, let alone speak on a telephone. Green spent two weeks working with this young man in private sessions so he could pass the course he taught and gain employment at the bank’s call center. Another was a young woman who invited Green to lunch only to suffer the embarrassment of having nothing to serve when her maid fell sick.

Green’s thought: “Not to worry.”

He stepped in the kitchen himself and cooked a meal to share with the young woman and her three friends. Later, when he learned the young woman was infatuated with the young man he had assisted at the call center, he set up an introduction and paid for their first date out of his own pocket.

“Now, that same man, he’s in the U.S. working on Visa,” Green said. “That same woman? She’s his wife. He donated quite a significant amount to my site, more than he should have considering what he makes. I called and said, ‘Why did you do that?’ He said, ‘I remember one day when one person gave me 500 rupees for my first date. And, today, here’s the 500 rupees back with interest.’

“It goes to show you that you never know how you’re going to affect people or influence people or touch their lives. I am reminded to look at every moment and to say, ‘Am I doing the best things I can in this situation?’ “

The question moves him to carry on in the face of his own adversity, the “Monster Words” he asks on occasion making up for the loss of his “Monster Foot.”

“That is exactly what it looked like,” Green said.