Build A Hand Workshop

Imagine a world where there are no more donor lists, no more worrying about whether or not you will be able to find an organ for a transplant. Imagine if prosthetics and organs could be made in a day's time with the simple push of a button. This is not some far fetched idea or a plot from some sci-fi movie, this is reality. This semester, Akhtar gave us a talk about his project and his goal to use 3-D printing to create a prosthetic hand. I found his this concept very interesting and wanted to investigate it a bit more. As the technology for 3-D printing advances and improves, we now have the ability to conveniently and inexpensively print prosthetics. This can transform the lives of the thousands of amputees or people that were just born with missing limbs. Recently, this changed the life of Faith Lennox, a seven year old girl. Due to compartment syndrome during childbirth, blood flow to her left forearm was heavily constricted, irreparably damaging tissue, muscle, and bone. After nine months of trying to save the limb, doctors were left with no choice but to amputate. However, Faith's life changed on March 31st. She received a custom, lightweight prosthetic. The prosthetic was made overnight at the Build It Workspace studio, which is a 3-D printer studio that teaches and allows people to use 3-D printing technology. Faith had tried more traditional, heavier, and more expensive prosthetics in the past but found them very difficult to use. This prosthetic however, fit Faith perfectly and is very easy to use. Best of all, she got to chose the colors. She picked blue and pink, her two favorite colors. The most impressive aspect of this is the price point. The materials needed to put together and print the hand only cost around fifty dollars. Similar and less efficient prosthetics can cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars more. This makes owning prosthetics very economical, especially for children. Children continuously outgrow their prosthetics so inexpensive prosthetics makes their lives much easier. This technology is not limited to just prosthetics. In the near future, the same technology may be able to be used to build an organ. A person with heart disease that needs a transplant will no longer have to go through the agony of moving up the donor list. A new, replacement heart can be put together and printed instantly. In 2013, surgeons at the University of Michigan were able to save the life of a 3 month old boy who had been born with severely weak tissue in his airway. They designed, 3-D-printed and surgically implanted a scaffold-like tube to hold his airway open. The procedure was a success. This is a revolutionary concept for the medical field. It would solve so many problems and issues. Although this technology may still be a few years away, the prosthetic hands and other minor procedures are in some ways a proof of concept that this could work. 3-D printing can change the world and change the lives of countless amounts of people, just like it did for Faith.

Work Cited

Mellgard, Peter. "Medical 3-D Printing Will 'Enable a New Kind of Future'" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 22 Apr. 2015. Web. 02 May 2015.

Press, The Associated. "7-year-old's 3-D Printer Hand Offers Hope for Inexpensive Prosthetics." Oregon Live. N.p., 31 Mar. 2015. Web. 02 May 2015.