Last year, a 24-year-old Austrian named Patrick was the first patient in the world to choose to have his hand amputated, again by Professor Aszmann, and a bionic replacement fitted. He lost the use of his left hand after being electrocuted at work.
He can now open a bottle quickly and tie his own shoelaces.
"My reaction was 'Oh my god, I've got a new hand!'," he told BBC News.
"I can do functions which I did with my normal hand with the prosthetic arm," he said, recalling his response to first being fitted with a bionic hand.
"I think it was very cool - I did not do things with my hand for three years and then you put on the new hand and one moment later, you can move it. It's great."
Patrick is already testing a new hand, which its makers say will give him much greater movement. The hand has six sensors fitted over nerves within the lower arm, rather than the two on his current prosthesis.
Multiple signals can be read simultaneously, enabling the patient to twist and flex their wrist back and forward, again using the same brain signals that would have powered similar movement in the real hand.
Professor Oskar Aszmann prefers to calls these elective amputations "bionic reconstruction" and has been working closely with Otto Bock, who have a research and production facility in Vienna.
Elective amputee Patrick shows what he can do with his bionic hand, Check out the video. [ link ] |
