Meanwhile, Thomas, a full-time college student in Charleston, South Carolina, spent the summer at home in Chattanooga working at a prosthetics and orthotics company.

CNN: Double amputee loses legs, finds a cause

Kevin Murray, a prosthetist at the UK's National Center for Prosthetics and Orthotics, says advances in materials and technology have been dramatic since he began his career.

CNN: Powering prosthetics with thoughts alone

Both rehabilitation techniques and prosthetic devices have improved because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Steve Gard, the executive director of Northwestern University Prosthetics-Orthotics Center in Chicago.

WSJ: Boston Marathon Amputees Face New Reality