Keith now has black and blue "robotic" hand, at a fraction of the price of a typical prosthetic limb.
Keith Harris, a kindergartner from Texas, suffers from Symbrachydactyly, which basically means that one of his hands did not fully form in utero. But thanks to 3D printing technology, Keith now has black and blue “robotic” hand, at a fraction of the price of a typical prosthetic limb.
“Keith is not eligible for a regular prosthetic device,” Keith’s mom, Kim Harris told Houston’s KHOU. “It would cost us around $40,000, he would outgrow it, it is very stuffy, sweaty and uncomfortable.”
Fortunately, Keith connected with an organization called E-nabling the Future, a world wide movement of designers, engineers, and 3D print enthusiasts who design and create new hands using 3D printers. A volunteer from the group in North Carolina created Keith’s hand in less than a month. The price was only $45, covered by the organization.
“I thought it would be hard to control,” Keith told Houston’s KTRK. “It’s easy. When you bend your wrist down, it just goes down like that.” And with a simple motion, Keith can make a fist.
The Harris family is now raising money for Keith to go to Camp No Limits next summer, a sports camps for kids with upper limb differences.
E-nabling the Future, the organization that made Keith’s new hand possible, traces its origins to a prop maker from the USA and a carpenter from South Africa who collaborated to create a 3D printed prosthetic hand device for a small child in South Africa. The two then gave the plans away for free, “so that those in need of the device could make them for themselves or have someone make it for them.”
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