Everybody should have equal access to an active life

Levitate. 

The word derives from the Latin “levare” and means the ability to make things float in the air.

It is also the name of the startup that Lasse W. Madsen founded in 2020, which has since given back hope to thousands of people worldwide.

Hopes were slim when Lasse W. Madsen was 14 years old and lying in a hospital bed with a shattered leg after a traffic accident. It was so damaged that it had to be amputated just above the knee. 

“I had done gymnastics since I was three years old and I was due to start at a sports college called Vejstrup Gymnastikefterskole nine months later. But when I asked the doctor when I could do sports again, the reply was that it would probably never be possible again, as prices of sports prostheses were sky-high and not covered by any kind of insurance,” recalls Lasse W. Madsen. 

Useful knowledge about prostheses

Fortunately, Lasse W. Madsen had a good prosthetist who found some spare parts in the basement of the hospital and put together an artificial leg for him. The prosthetist also taught him how a prosthesis works and not least how to take it apart and put it back together. This knowledge would prove very useful to him many years later.

But first Lasse W. Madsen trained so hard to learn to walk, run and do gymnastics that he managed to start at the sports college. Later he trained as a civil engineer and subsequently worked as a development director at a global company that manufactures maritime rescue equipment.

“I travelled all over the world, but in 2019 I decided to stop after I had finished a very big project. Then I started doing lots of sports again and needed a new sports prosthesis because the old one no longer fitted.  But then I faced the same problem as when I was 14: not all municipal authorities or insurance companies are willing to pay for a sports prosthesis,” says Lasse W. Madsen.

Affordable prostheses

So he went to his old university, DTU Risø, to find help to develop a prosthetic leg that was cheaper than what was available on the market. Here he made contact with scientists who build large-scale prototypes and test the strength and durability of large structures such as wind turbine blades. While Lasse W. Madsen was learning to manufacture and process strong and light composite components, he got in touch with DTU Link, which matches scientists and startups. That helped him to develop and test his running blade in DTU’s workshops and labs.

“At first I just intended to build a prosthetic leg for myself. But when it worked I was encouraged to offer it to other leg amputees,” explains Lasse W. Madsen.

The result was the company Levitate, which is based on the idea that amputees should be able to go online to buy parts to build their own leg at a price comparable to a bicycle rather than a car.

My ambition has been to democratise the prosthesis industry to give all leg amputees the opportunity to get a customised prosthesis at an affordable price. It shouldn’t depend on who you happen to meet or how much money you have," says Lasse W. Madsen, whose ambition has given back hope to the thousands of leg amputees who until now have not had the opportunity to live an active life. 

During the first years he delivered more than 1,000 prostheses to the US where the “buy online and install at home” mentality was a perfect match for Levitate’s product.

“This opened up for a life that leg amputees had not had previously and for a payment model that allowed them to make their own decisions. Instead of waiting months for approvals of expenses and the manufacture of prostheses, they could go out running three days after buying our prosthesis online themselves,” says Lasse W. Madsen, who today exports to more than 20 countries.

“Just like my prosthetist set me free when I was 14, we have set amputees all over the world free to have an active life by explaining to them how prostheses work and helping them to help themselves. Suddenly they have hope for the future,” says Lasse W. Madsen.

Everyday prostheses

This has raised new questions from the target group: if you can do my sports prosthesis, why can’t you make my everyday leg?

That’s why Levitate has also developed an adaptable prosthesis that can be used for both everyday activities and sports, and it has – against a sad background – sold well from the beginning. For in Ukraine at least 60,000 amputations have been performed as a consequence of the war, and the national health care system is not geared to keep up with the huge demand for prostheses. That’s why Levitate collaborates with interest organisations, hospitals, rehabilitation clinics and prosthetists to give the injured Ukrainian soldiers as much mobility back as possible as quickly as possible, to enable them to return to life in the best possible way.

The people who lose limbs in Ukraine are young active men and women who one minute lead perfectly normal lives and the next suddenly lose their mobility. That’s traumatic in itself. And if they have to lie in a hospital bed for months waiting for a prosthesis, they risk falling into depression,” says Lasse W. Madsen. 

He doesn’t hesitate when asked to explain what it means for him to have created something that has helped so many.

“It means that my own accident was not in vain. Because even though it changed my life dramatically, I have also changed the lives of thousands of other people with my prosthesis by building the future I want to live in myself,” says Lasse W. Madsen, who still has dreams for the future.

He would like to see Levitate’s mission succeed on a global scale, so that all amputees can have a prosthesis throughout their lives that allows them to be self-reliant – not just in the US and Europe, but also in India and Africa.

And that’s why Lasse W. Madsen extends an open invitation to the established system.

“I wish that public officials in charge of aids for disabled persons were more aware of the innovation taking place in Denmark. We have a lot of entrepreneurs who build solutions that for the same amount of money could give many people living with disabilities a lot more opportunities,” he says. 

For the dream is to levitate people, dreams and hopes.

From test run event in Lviv, Ukraine.