Sergio Peralta student of USA He was born without one hand, and his engineering colleagues decided to create a prosthesis for him to have better mobility, which changed his whole life, since he always dreamed of playing ball with both hands during his childhood.
According to a report that The Washington Post, Peralta related that his right hand did not fully develop, instead growing small fingers at the end of his arm. Since then he learned to carry out all his daily activities such as writing, eating, carrying books with one hand.
And although he had lost hope that this would change, students from his school performed an act of solidarity with his partner. Now, Peralta not only managed to hold a ball, but he can carry his own food, carry glasses and other tasks that require the use of both hands.
“I started to feel happier, more excited (…) I wanted to do a lot of things with my right hand. Now I can do more, ”Peralta mentioned to the international media, in which he recounted what he can do with his new prosthesis.
Sergio Peralta with the engineering students who created his prosthetic hand at Hendersonville High School in Tennessee. (The Washington Post)
A change for your life
the young man of Tennessee He assured that during a period of his life he was hiding his right hand up his sleeve, since since he was a minor all his classmates asked him why he did not have his hand and some actually made fun of him.
Your computer teacher Jeff Wilkins, He noticed these behaviors in the student, who used the mouse to the left side of his keyboard. After finding out, the teacher decided to help the student by motivating the classmates to make a prosthesis. However, he secretly did it with three people.
Peralta assured that he had never done tests for a prosthesis, since he felt comfortable using his left hand. After the teacher’s idea, they bought printing equipment 3D on Amazon and found a model image of a prosthetic hand in design software.
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(Shutterstock)
an act of solidarity
“I didn’t want to get their hopes up, I’d rather under-promise and over-deliver than over-promise and under-deliver on something like this,” Wilkins said. For this prosthesis, they used polylactic acid, a plastic filament material common in 3D printing, which is also used to make electronic devices, as the main tissue of the hand.
They also applied thermoplastic polyurethanes, a stretchy plastic commonly found in phone and laptop cases, so that fingers could flex and squeeze objects. They also used fishing line and Velcro so that Sergio could easily tie his hand to his forearm.
After getting everything ready, the students used LuizBot 3D printer from the school to create the prototype. And in an act of reflexes, Wilkins threw a ball to Sergio, who after several attempts managed to catch it.
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And now after a month of use, Sergio points out that he only removes his hand to sleep, but he uses it all day for his different activities, such as picking up glasses, carrying his plates of food, and his next step is learning to write with this prosthesis.
Although the youngsters in the school had no knowledge of engineering, they were also motivated by this project to study it in university and hope to work with other influential products that can help people in their daily lives.
