Only a few years ago, the simple act of feeding herself or hugging her mother would have eluded a child born like Hannah. But in the age of 3D printing one little girl has discovered that anything is possible. Hannah was born with a condition called arthrogryposis, a disorder characterized by severe joint and muscle weakness, and she has had little to no ability to move or interact with the world around her without help.
Mick Ebeling is making a deep impact with a very simple approach: Help one, help many. Founder of Not Impossible Labs, a nonprofit that creates tech solutions for real-world problems, Ebeling was moved by the 2012 TIME story about a Sudanese amputee whose arms were lost in a bomb attack. To protect himself from the blast 14-year-old Daniel Omar hugged a tree, which shielded his body from the explosion though exposed his arms.
Researchers at the Nemours / Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children have created something heartwarming; a 3D printed exoskeleton that allows a two year old girl named Emma to move her arms for the first time.
When Emma was born she was diagnosed with Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita (AMC). Children with AMC are frequently unable to move their arms on their own and the condition does not get better over time. Emma could not raise her arms to hug her parents, hold a crayon or play with a toy.
The BIOFABRIS is a National Institute of S&T in Biomanufacturing of multidisciplinary,
located at the Chemical Engineering Campus of UNICAMP, character that aims to integrate computational tools, synthesis and development of new biomaterials and application of engineering techniques to obtain biomedical devices (prostheses and orthopedic orthoses) and substitutes for live biological tissues or defective or missing human organs.