Winter the Dolphin Kevin Carroll

in 2005, baby dolphin (now named winter) became entangled in ropes of crab trap. rope cut off supply of blood tail resulted in tail being amputated.

it thought winter learn swim without tail, forced swim side side motion instead of normal , down motion. winter s veterinarians feared unusual movement damage spine. kevin carroll, had designed prosthetics other animals (including dogs, ostrich , duck), volunteered after hearing winter on npr , became winter s prosthetist in 2005.

kevin , team of experts, including hanger clinician dan strzempka, began working on creating prosthetic tail winter. while carroll thought simple task, project took on year , half before winter began wearing tail. successful creation of artificial tail fluke first time full prosthetic tail has been created dolphin.

carroll , strzempka worked chemical engineer develop wintersgel, new material disperse pressure evenly onto dolphin s skin. material used human amputees including brian kolfage , megan mckeon.

2009 book adaptation

in 2009 winter s story told craig hatkoff , daughters juliana , isabella hatkoff, no. 1 new york times best-selling children s authors in winter s tail: how 1 little dolphin learned swim again. book published turtle pond publications , scholastic. book co-released nintendo ds game.

2011 film adaptation

in 2011, winter s story hit big screen when american film director charles martin smith directed film dolphin tale. carroll , strzempka served consultants movie , featured @ end credits along megan mckeon , others have benefited winter. reasons unknown concerning historical liberties, carroll , strzempka s roles merged 1 character film, dr. cameron mccarthy played legendary actor morgan freeman. on blu-ray + dvd + ultraviolet digital copy version of movie, carroll , strzempka featured in winter s inspiration, featurette shares winter s true story.