ALL THE BETER TO THE HUG YOU WITH
Boy's bionic arm miracle
WILLIAM Smith, 16, lifted a fork to his mouth this week and ate a meal his mother had prepared for him. It was the first time in four years that he was able to feed himself, and the food tasted like heaven.
At age 12, he lost both arms in an electric shock accident on the farm where he lives with his parents.
This week, his “new” life began with state-of-the-art bionic arms that have only just been launched on the global market.
With fingers that can move individually like real fingers, he is now learning to resume daily activities, like pouring a glass of water, or putting on a funky shirt to do what he loves best — rapping.
His new prostheses are based on myoelectrics, which means they are controlled by the electric signals generated by his own muscles in the remaining stumps.
His right arm was amputated at the shoulder and his left arm at the elbow, after he climbed up an electricity pole at the farmworkers’ cottage where he lives with his parents in De Doorns in the Western Cape.
He had wanted to explore a bird’s nest with his little cousin one Friday after school.
Halfway up the pole he was badly shocked and fell to the ground unconscious. His arms were severely burnt, and amputated a few days later.
“For a long time I was cross with myself for climbing up the pole,” he says. “But I have forgiven myself. And now I am really excited about the bionic arms.”
His mother, Wilhelmina Smith, 40, says: “It has been very difficult, but I must cope. If he needs something, I can’t give it to him immediately. Now he is learning to help himself more easily.”
After the accident, she spent three months at his side at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, praying for his recovery. He was unconscious for the first three weeks.
He then got his first prostheses, which were made of wax but had no functionality. After a week, he took them off.
His art therapist at Red Cross, Sascha Archer, was so moved by his determination that she enlisted a close friend to make a documentary about him so that they could raise funds.
“A few months later I was fitted with an electric arm. I could pick stuff up, and hold just a few things,” he says. But the fingers couldn’t move and functionality was still extremely limited. The arm was also very heavy and tiring to wear.
Recently, local prosthetist Eugene Rossouw procured a stateof-the-art bionic hand and lower arm from British company RSL Steeper, and fitted it for Smith.
The bebionic small hand came onto the market in the middle of last month, and is the first to mimic the real movement of a hand and also fit a juvenile. Each finger articulates separately.
According to Ted Varley, technical director at Steeper, the bebionic small hand “is built around an accurate skeletal structure with miniaturised components designed to provide true-to-life movements”.
It weighs little more than a chocolate bar, and has sensors that are triggered when Smith
❛ The arm includes ’the use of Formula 1 techniques and military technology’
moves the muscles of his stump.
The sensors “connect to individual motors and powerful microprocessors in each finger”, says Varley, adding that a special glove, resembling the user’s skin tone, is placed over the prosthesis.
He says it took seven years of research and manufacturing, “including the use of Formula 1 techniques and military technology”, to produce the arm.
Archer says she is “thrilled beyond belief” about Smith’s new arms and hands. “My hope is that his new arms will allow him to perform basic activities like showering, typing, getting dressed and opening doors.”
This week, the left arm was fitted. Over the next few days, the right arm will be fitted. Smith will be sporting his two new arms when he returns to his special needs boarding school after the winter holidays. “I like being on the farm,” he says. “My friends and family here treat me like I am one of them. But I also like school. I get to rap with my friends, and I love it.”