These people have got a leg — or an arm — up on the future.
Thanks to the latest advancements in medical science, amputees are becoming part robot, with awe-inspiring artificial limbs that would make Luke Skywalker jealous.
These new limbs come armed with microprocessors and electrodes that sense muscle movement. Others can be controlled by a smartphone app. People missing limbs often tried to hide their prosthetics, but these New Yorkers are showing them off with pride.
Are these artificial limbs better than the real thing?
October 25, 2015
Photo: CSaw Studies
Rebekah Marine had the modeling bug from a young age, playing dress-up as a kid and getting her mom to take her to try out for modeling agencies in New York.
The one problem? She was born without part of her right arm.
“I was just kind of quickly denied from [agencies] based on my quote-unquote disability,” the 28-year-old says.
Then, in June, the Woodbury, NJ, resident got fitted for an extra-petite I-Limb Quantum from Touch Bionics, a top-of-the-line arm controlled by muscle signals. It’s the first prosthetic hand that can change grips with a simple gesture, meaning just moving the hand in one of four directions can activate a grip.
The arm is sleek and stylish, and the modeling world finally took notice: She posed for Nordstorm earlier this year and walked in her second Fashion Week shows this fall.
“I got some cheers. I think everybody was super excited to see the technology of the prosthetic hand,” says Marine, who also does modeling work for prosthetics companies.
But her favorite benefit of the prosthetic happens off the runway.
“I think the coolest part is tying shoes,” she says, adding that a friend’s 4-year-old son kept asking her to do it over and over again at a recent party. “He had a superhero robot lady tying his shoes!”
Are these artificial limbs better than the real thing?
October 25, 2015
Photo: Anne Wermiel
Daniel Bastian describes himself as a guy who “lives on the water” — frequently boating and diving off docks into the waters off Massapequa on Long Island. The 50-year-old wasn’t going to let losing his leg to bone cancer stop him.
After toying with various simple swap-in, swap-out legs, he turned to the latest development made by German company Ottobock: the X3 waterproof prosthetic leg. It was developed for the Department of Defense, so that ex-soldiers could have more active lives and maybe even return to duty. Not only does it allow Bastian to jump in the water whenever he wants, it contains an accelerometer and gyroscope that use the same technology as a Nintendo Wii or smartphone. He taps his heel a few times and the leg beeps and switches into different modes: a flexible knee for biking or a stiffer leg for swimming.
Bastian says deciding to let his limb be amputated was the best decision he ever made. Now he’s more active than some of his teenage kids’ parents.
“They gave me six months to live 35 years ago,” says Bastian, who founded his own prosthetics company, Progressive Orthotics & Prosthetics in Albertson, LI. “Doctors always want to talk about limb salvage. Having the amputation and moving forward became life salvage for me. With the new prosthetics, it’s just completely life-changing.”
Shannon Smith
A tragic infection and complications from a pregnancy in 2011 turned Shannon Smith into a quadruple amputee. But Smith was determined to fight back through a coma, liver and kidney failure and 17 surgeries. Modal TriggerShannon Smith “My son was already 3, so I knew I had to get back to some [kind of] normal for him,” says Smith, from Buffalo.
She got extra help from medical science in the form of two top-of-the-line microprocessor prosthetics by Ottobock that use electrodes attached to muscles to control the arms, and robotic knees from Icelandic company Össur that attach via suction. She can flinch the muscles in her remaining upper arm to control the forearm and hands, which almost feels natural.
“It uses the same muscles I would use to open and close my hand anyway,” Smith, 32, says. “The amount of pressure is what makes it close hard or soft.” She updates the devices’ software or adds new gestures by visiting her local East Coast Orthotics outpost in Buffalo and plugging them into a laptop.
There is one thing these robot parts are ironically bad at, though: communicating with other robots.
“The hand is still that material that’s not compatible with the iPad’s [touch screen]. That’s the one thing I wish was more advanced.”
Sean McHugh
Sure, there are skin-toned gloves Sean McHugh could use to cover up his bebionic hand. But why not show off a little, like on the subway, where a crowd will gawk and ooh in wonder at his articulated fingers? Modal TriggerMcHugh lost his hand in 2002 while renovating a house. “I find when I don’t wear the [cover], people do think it’s cool,” the 51-year-old Upper East Sider says. “I prefer that robotic ‘Terminator’ look to the natural-looking coverings.”
McHugh lost his hand while renovating a house in 2002, when a bad piece of lumber kicked a saw back at him. He tried a pincher hook first, which was helpful, but it hadn’t evolved much since it was first developed in 1912. About three years ago, he decided to try the bebionic from Texas-based Steeper, which uses electrodes attached to muscles to operate the grips, with individual motors for each finger and an automatic sensor that prevents things from slipping out of the hand’s grip.
“To me it feels very natural. I’m just opening and closing my hand, and the prosthesis obeys my command,” the office manager says. “No one ever ran up to me when I was wearing the hook and said, ‘That’s really cool,’ or ‘Can I shake that hand?’ ”
Are these artificial limbs better than the real thing?
October 25, 2015
Anthony Riaza, 44, still doesn’t remember how the accident on New Year’s Eve 2014 went down. He knows he was at work for the Department of Sanitation when a garbage truck ran over his left arm. He remembers that there was too much damage and doctors couldn’t save his left arm; they amputated it below the elbow.
All healed by July, he got set up with an I-Limb Revolution prosthetic arm from the Hanger Clinic on the Upper East Side, which comes with Bluetooth. Need to change your grip? There’s an app for that.
“It’s like an iPod they give you that comes with this prosthetic,” the Washingtonville resident says. “And you can download different grips, if you want to change them.” It’s got about 24 grips to choose from; he says he only uses about six or seven — combinations of fingers opened/closed, open palm, etc.
Riaza retired from the Department of Sanitation and is finally pursuing his dream of being a full-time abstract artist.
“I would like to be an artist again,” he says, “and I think it’s possible now, with the prosthetic especially, to be able to pursue that dream.” Larry Getlen contributed to this report.
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