Prosthetic

student.

Muhammet Turkay, the school's Executive Director, said he wanted to help Dontavius, but wants the program to expand beyond their walls.

"We want to make and expand this to other people in Memphis, whoever needs a hand," Turkay said.

Dontavius will update the staff on his experiences with the arm, with the goal of improving the design. Dontavius had input from the start –particularly on the color.

His mother, Latasha Morris, said she was seven months pregnant with Dontavius when her doctor noticed he didn't move from one side of her womb to the other. She soon learned a string-like amniotic band had wrapped around his arm, stunting its growth. "I had to prepare him for the world," she said. That included how to talk to other people about it, Morris said, and as a young child he often chose to wait in the car instead of play with other kids.

Dontavius said he guesses other kids will now be "surprised, at least."

"For him to get the chance to be able to do more things that he wasn't able to do, it's exciting," Morris said.

Dontavius, who now fist-bumps and shakes hands, is excited at the prospect of other children benefiting from the experience.

"That would be motivating, to have self-confidence that they can do anything," he said.