Hanger Prosthetics and Orthotics
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Prosthetics, Medical equipment |
| Headquarters | Austin, Texas |
| Parent | Hanger Orthopedic Group, Inc. |
| Website | www.hanger.com |
Hanger Clinic (a division of Hanger, Inc.) (NYSE: HGR) provides prosthetic and orthotic patient care services in the United States. The company has more than 640 patient care centers located in 45 states and the District of Columbia. About 650,000 patients visit these centers each year. Hanger Clinic, (formerly Hanger Prosthetics and Orthotics) operates under the corporate umbrella of Hanger, Inc (formerly Hanger Orthopedic Group, Inc.), headquartered in Austin, TX (formerly Bethesda, MD). According to the company's 2007 annual report, the patient care market for prosthetic and orthotic services in the United States is estimated at $2.5 billion annually. Hanger Clinic represents about 25 percent of this market. They employ about 3,500 people, including more than 1,080 prosthetic and orthotic practitioners.
Notable Hanger patients include:
James Edward Hanger, the first documented amputee of the American Civil War, founded the company in Virginia in 1861.
A remark in Ambrose Bierce's postwar memoir that "We shot off a Confederate leg at Philippi" refers to Hanger. At 18 years of age, Hanger joined the Confederate cavalry at Philippi, Virginia, on June 2, 1861. One day later, during the Battle of Philippi, Hanger was sheltering inside a stable with the rest of the Churchville (Virginia) Cavalry when the "first solid Union cannon shot of the war" bounced into the stable and struck his leg. The injury required amputation of Hanger's leg above the knee, and he underwent the first battlefield amputation of the war, at the hands of Union surgeons. Hanger returned to his parent's home to recuperate wearing a prosthesis that was basically a wooden peg. His dissatisfaction with the fit and function of the limb replacement led Hanger to design and construct a new prosthesis from whittled barrel staves, rubber and wood, with hinges at the knee and foot. The device worked well, and the state legislature commissioned him to manufacture the “Hanger Limb” for other wounded soldiers.
Manufacturing operations for J.E. Hanger, Inc., were established in the cities of Staunton and Richmond. Hanger was awarded his first patent for an artificial limb, number 155, from the United States Patent Office on March 23, 1863. Over the years Hanger developed and patented additional products for veterans and other amputees. In 1906, Hanger moved the company’s headquarters to Washington, DC. In 1915, he traveled to Europe to help World War I amputees and to learn from European prosthetists.
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Wikipedia