Reality star and influencer, Jordan Wiseley, talks about what it’s like to succeed in sports and in life with four missing fingers, an uncommon congenital disease known as symbrachydactyly with an unknown cause. “The human body is the most sophisticated machine on the planet,” Wiseley says with typical enthusiasm. “It can adapt to anything. I have never had fingers.” People often tell him, “Imagine how good you might have been with two hands.” Given the chance to have his left hand re-engineered so he can have two working hands, would Jordan Wiseley do it? His choice may surprise you.
He is joined in this episode by Doctor Kia Washington, a board-certified hand surgeon who performs the most complex hand-reconstructive surgeries at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Besides leading world-class research in eye and other complex transplants, Doctor Washington is an expert on hand trauma, such as carpal tunnel syndrome and rheumatoid arthritis. She also performs hand reconstructive surgery, such as sewing fingers back on after severe accidents. Doctor Washington is hardly surprised at Jordan Wiseley’s success. “Despite being born with a congenital disease,” she says, “most people go on to become resilient and great achievers.” From learning to bat left-handed, to learning to button a cuff, Wiseley is unstoppable, a trait he does not think he could have had if he had been born with two hands. So how did success find him? “I got found at a bar,” he says. “From then, I headed to the real world.” The reality TV show The Challenge has taken him to Thailand, Norway, Patagonia, and Uruguay, among other exotic places.
What makes Jordan Wisely unstoppable? According to Doctor Washington, it is the brain’s ability to remodel and to adapt. Wiseley agrees. “I have never had fingers. So this is something that I had to power past. You just have to do a little more.”
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