My name is Richard Herskovitz. I am a 46-year-old natural bodybuilder and model. I also am an amputee. In October 2005 I contracted a disease called Necrotizing Fasciitis, also known as The Flesh Eating Infection. I spent about a total of 6 weeks in the University of Maryland’s Shock Trauma Center. I had 15 surgeries and spent hundreds of hours in a hyperbaric chamber, trying to save my leg. For the next 15 months the doctors and I tried to save what was left of my leg. I went through 4 different skin graft surgeries in that time. After consulting with many foot specialists, they all agreed that I would never have use of my foot and ankle again. The disease had done too much damage; I would never walk again using that damaged foot.

In December of 2006, I had my right leg amputated below the knee.  I had been a competitive bodybuilder before but I had retired from competition in 2000.  Before my amputation, I had set some goals for myself.  One of them was to get on stage again as a bodybuilder.  In May of 2007, I realized my goal.  I took home fifth place in Baltimore's Silver Cup Bodybuilding competition.  Doing that show inspired me to keep working out to improve my physique, to become, once again, a top level bodybuilder, able to compete with any able bodied person.   

My goal is to inspire people who face physical obstacles to believe that

Nothing Is Impossible