7-Year-Old Gets 3D-Printed Prosthetic Arm – Made for Only $50

Faith Lennox lost part of her left arm when she was just nine months old. Her body’s position at the time of birth restricted the flow of blood to her arm, causing irreversible damage.

So for almost all of the 7-year-old’s life, she’s had to adapt to life with one hand – until Mark Lengsfeld, founder of California’s Build It Workspace, stepped in.

His young company (they’ve been around for less than a year) has used 3D printers to create any number of small industrial products, but decided to step into the prosthetics field, and succeeded in building Faith a new hand – for just $50, reports the Associated Press. (California State University prosthetics professor Mark Muller, who helped design the “robohand,” said that heavier variants with sensors that connect to muscles can run up to $20,000.)

Faith’s prosthetic weighs about a pound, and its affordability means it can be easily replaced, which happens once or twice a year as children outgrow their devices.

Lengsfeld told the AP he was initially unsure how the hand would work, but Faith ultimately “did fine with it.”

Or perhaps more than fine.

Shortly after donning it for the first time, she was pedaling her bike around the Build It Workplace’s parking lot.

Source: people.com