Medical devices invented in the South pose problems for those living in Arctic communities. Northerners are often left to innovate their own solutions. (Eilís Quinn/Eye on the Arctic)

Do mobility devices in the Arctic need a rethink? – Eye on the Arctic video archive

Eye on the Arctic brings you stories and newsmakers from around the North.

In today’s instalment, a video from our documentary archive.

Recovering from knee surgery isn’t easy for anyone, but for Jimmy Okhina Sr., living in Arctic Canada made it that much more of a challenge.

The surgery took place in Yellowknife, the capital city of Canada’s Northwest Territories.

Afterwards, Okhina was given a walker to take back to his home community of Cambridge Bay in Canada’s High Arctic.

He quickly realized it wasn’t going to do him much good.

“It’s OK for inside, but outside? No good in the snow,” he says. “Too hard to push.”

The lack of mobility affected Okhina’s ability to do everything from shopping to going out hunting with his family.

So he decided to ditch the walker and find his own solution, making an ‘Arctic-adapted’ walker himself, based on the construction of the Inuit sleds he’s spent his life building.

Eye on the Arctic spent a morning with him to find out how he did it.

Eilís Quinn at eilis.quinn(at)cbc.ca

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