About East Carolina Brace & Limb:

East Carolina Brace & Limb was founded in 1968 by Don and Lynn Truesdale in a small storefront in downtown New Bern, North Carolina. They stayed at that location for several years before moving and upgrading to a larger location closer to the medical community. At that time, they began to attempt to train their oldest sons into the field of prosthetics and orthotics. After many years of continued growth, Mr. Truesdale decided to upgrade once again to a commercial site even closer to the medical community with a more professional presentation. During that transition, they were able to encourage two sons, Mike and Scott, to continue in the field of prosthetics and orthotics, later to be followed by Cynthia and younger brother Steven, who continue today in the field of prosthetics and orthotics.

Mr. Truesdale had a vision of East Carolina Brace & Limb being like the center of a wheel, with many spokes going out, so the plan was to develop outside clinics in surrounding counties and surrounding cities, with New Bern being the hub. The first branch was established in Morehead City, later to be followed by Kinston, North Carolina and Goldsboro. Mr. and Mrs. Truesdale retired to 1999, with four out of six of their children firmly with careers in orthotics and prosthetics and at that time they had four office locations. In their retirement year, Mr. and Mrs. Truesdale sold their business to Mike and Cynthia, their son and their daughter. Mike and Cynthia continued to stay at the location on Oaks Road for several more years and began to expand the territory even more. They bought an office in Jacksonville from his brother Steven and opened two clinics, one in Greenville and one in Wilson. East Carolina Brace & Limb Company now has seven locations serving patients and meeting the needs in the medical communities and surrounding counties also.

Housing staff, lab, and stock in the Oaks Road location became a problem, and Mike and Cynthia considered building a freestanding new office in the middle of the medical community. As fate would have it, they were approached about leasing a space across from Craven Regional Medical Center, now Carolina East Medical Center, in 2007. At that time, they went ahead and moved their patient care and administration into their new space at 2111 Neuse Boulevard. This was Mike's vision to ultimately get in the center of the medical community, as prosthetics and orthotics are a viable medical entity and focused on the team approach to medical care in a rehabilitation process. Prosthetics and orthotics are squarely and definitively a part of the medical community. So Don Truesdale's vision of New Bern as a hub with many spokes going out to other locations, Mike's new vision of East Carolina Brace & Limb solidifying itself as a viable part of the medical community was now a reality and, as East Carolina Brace & Limb's new facility was close to the hospital so that we can provide even better services for the patients that it serves.

Over many years of serving the community and the community being a blessing for East Carolina Brace & Limb, it has been Mike's desire to give back when the need arises. There have been many opportunities that East Carolina Brace & Limb meets each year in giving back. They adopt and have adopted many families over the Christmas holidays. The entire staff has been involved in giving Christmas trees, gifts, and food for the children as well as parents of these children in need. East Carolina Brace & Limb has been giving prosthetic components, orthotics, foot orthotics, knee braces, etc. to those that are need without any charge for over ten years now. Most recently, there was a volunteer fireman, T.C. King, who was injured in an accident while responding to call. He lost both legs above the knee, but could not get any funding or any help. He was called into the ministry as a minister as well. His wife is a Sunday school teacher, and they had one small boy, three years old. They had no money and no other income other than that, so East Carolina Brace & Limb pledged and provided T.C. King with two above-knee prosthetic prostheses so T.C. could begin his rehabilitation process and thus it was given to him for free.

Today, T.C. King is enjoying prostheses that were donated to him as well as East Carolina Brace & Limb donated walking gait rails for Mr. King to be able to walk down and also helped on his physical therapy training as well. As fate would have it, right down the road from T.C. King, most recently there has been a young lady who was involved in a single vehicle accident where she lost her leg above the knee, and Mike and Cynthia decided also because she did not have any funding and had been through a lot as well and did not have a job yet, to go ahead and donate her a prosthesis to get her rehabilitation started. She is graduated now from nursing school, has a job at the hospital, and is utilizing the donated prosthesis to do her daily activities of patient care.

Every year, East Carolina Brace & Limb, Mike and a team of golfers generally put together with staff, participate in many benefit golf tournaments. There are at least five golf tournaments each year that they participate in order to help with the surrounding communities and their efforts to provide help and care for those less fortunate. Mike and Cynthia both have many years of experience in the orthotics and prosthetics field. The combination of this experience will continue to lead East Carolina Brace & Limb Company into the technological future of the medical field in regards to prosthetics and orthotics. East Carolina Brace & Limb boasts they are the most experienced staff in eastern North Carolina by far. Mike and the rest of the clinicians are required to attend continuing education seminars in order to retain their certifications in their individual disciplines.

Mike, Cynthia, and Bill, each have nearly over 30 years experience. The clinicians are required to attend meetings and educational seminars. Their certifications on new products and new technology prepare them for the changes in the medical field in regards to prosthetics and orthotics and they boast on being a state of the art facility that stays abreast of all technology in their field. It is Mike's vision that East Carolina Brace & Limb be on the cutting edge of all technologies available in their field so that they can continue to be the accredited facility that sets the standard for orthotic and prosthetic care within their region. It is Mike's desire to provide the very best care that can be provided in the prosthetics and orthotics field.

It is his passion to educate the medical community as well as the community at large in regards to the physically challenged and what this entity does for them and how we get involved in education in the community it benefits and the challenges of taking care of the patients and the driving diagnoses for prosthetics and orthotics. Cynthia and the rest of her administration staff keep up with insurance policies and the numerous changes each year that insurance companies invoke upon the medical community as well as the patients. East Carolina Brace & Limb, Cynthia, and the rest of her administration staff continue to maintain contracts with all major insurance companies.

The combined efforts of East Carolina Brace & Limb administrative, clinical and technical staff provide an opportunity for surrounding communities to receive the best care prosthetically and orthotically, some of the best care in the nation. Practical and administrative management is second to none. Through our desire to educate and your desire to learn, we can build a future that embraces the physically challenge and helps them to achieve the most normal return to active lifestyles that can be achieved.