THE THREE MASK-ETEERS

A Successful Story of Our Prosthetic Design- Helping Hand

The boy we helped is a 6-year-old refugee from Venezuela. It took this boy and his family one month to get to Colorado from Mexico, but when they were 5 hours away from Colorado, he was in a near-fatal car accident. That was when this 6-year-old boy lost the majority of his right hand. Our organization got connected with the boy and his prosthetist Amy Ginsburg, a Certified Prosthetist/Orthotist who works at Children’s Hospital in Aurora, CO.

Since this boy has full wrist motion and enough of his hand to be able to work a prosthesis, we decided on a wrist-driven partial hand prosthesis. We were sent a 3D scan of the boy's right arm to design the partial hand prosthesis. To achieve this, we utilized a 3D scan to render the parts of the prosthesis. This allows the hand to close when the boy flexes his wrist.

The boy was being treated at Children’s Hospital Colorado located in Denver. We were able to meet the patient at the hospital and fit the prototype we made. Our reaction to the function of the device was priceless. This 6-year-old shy boy completely changed once he put the 3D-printed prosthesis on. He was able to pick up objects and play catch with a ball, all actions he couldn’t do without a prosthetic hand. Some modifications needed to be made to the prototype, and a second prosthesis required to be printed.

We were able to make the necessary changes and ship it to Denver. This was a difficult task considering how small this patient’s hand was, as the prosthesis design was originally made for adults. Both times, we  rendered the parts utilizing a 3D design software, printed the parts, and assembled the prosthesis. The newly assembled device arrived in Denver and fit the boy perfectly.

He is currently attending occupational therapy to familiarize himself with using the new prosthetic hand for day-to-day tasks like eating with a spoon and writing with a marker, preparing him for his first year of school.