Home-Engineered Prosthetics
Photo courtesy of Ivan Owen
Unbearable pain shot up Richard Van As’ arm into his neck. It felt like an electrical current surging through his upper body. In a matter of seconds, the smell of burnt flesh filled the air. He looked at his hand. Two of his fingers lay on the saw table.
Van As says his brain blocked out most of his experience. He does remember the resistance of the saw against his fingers and how it eventually lost power and shut down; it was struggling to cut through bone.
Van As, a South African carpenter, removed his fingers from the saw, and placed them into his apron pocket. He then wrapped his injured hand in the apron — the most painful sensation he has ever experienced. Quickly he realized he was missing two more fingers. He looked down at the saw’s dust collector and saw his ring finger, but decided it would take too long to retrieve. At that moment, he decided he could live without his ring and pinkie fingers.
By the time Van As arrived at the hospital with his amputated fingers, they were turning blue, he says. Doctors told him there was only a 30 percent chance of successful reattachment.
Forgoing attempts at reattachment, the ordeal motivated him to develop a device to regain some of his hand’s functionality, Van As says.
“I was told I was a crazy man and a fool,” he says, “and that made me more determined than ever.”
Six months after his accident, Van As discovered a mechanical-hand prop on YouTube that piqued his interest. He emailed creator Ivan Owen, an inventor who lived 10,000 miles away in Bellingham, and invited him to collaborate on his own device. After eight months, countless emails and Skype sessions, the pair successfully engineered Van As’ robotic hand.
The success of the robotic hand inspired Van As and Owen to share their low-cost prosthetic design with people around the world. Medical-grade prosthetics cost more than $50,000, which makes them unaffordable to many in need. With donations, Van As and Owen now build devices for individuals at no cost to themselves.
The first challenge in teaming up was overcoming long-distance communication. Working so many miles apart on a project like this would not have been possible 20 years ago, Owen says.
To aid in the design process, Van As sent Owen a precise replica of his hand cast from plastic, giving him the exact dimensions for Van As’ prosthetic fingers.
“We had been doing as much as we could up to that point, but holding an exact model of his hand with its missing digits made it even more real,” Owen says. “This was happening, and it needed to happen faster.”
Using 3D printers donated by the company Makerbot, Owen produced fingers for Van As’ robotic hand. The printer operates using computer-aided design, constructing a physical representation of the designs, Owen says.
The addition of the 3D printer accelerated their design efforts and they built two functional prototypes, bringing them closer to a final device for production.
After working collaboratively for almost a year, Owen flew to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he met Van As for the first time. They worked in Van As’ home workshop, where they finalized his robotic hand.
“Our ideas flew back and forth,” Owen says. “We built like madmen.”
For the first time in more than a year, Van As regained vital functionality in his right hand — he can even use a keyboard with his robotic hand, Owen says.
The men had accomplished what doctors said would not be possible. Van As’ device cost a total of $500, 40 times less than a comparable prosthetic hand, which would cost $20,000, Owen says.
“If you’re dissatisfied with the way the game is played, you change the game, one piece at a time,” Owen says. “That’s what we did with Richard’s device.”
After they completed Van As’ device, the pair received an email from a parent whose 5-year-old son, Liam, was born with Ambiotic Band Syndrome, and did not have fingers on his right hand. Soon after, they began the building process for Liam’s own robotic hand. Building the devices for children like Liam really puts the entire project in perspective, Owen says.
“[Richard and I] only facilitate in helping kids like Liam with the vital ability to continue living life unhindered,” he says. “The device only does as much as the person who is wearing it; it’s up to them be their own [advocate] for change.”
The experience of building Van As’ robotic hand exponentially accelerated the build time of Liam’s device. The process was shaved down from eight months to three weeks, Owen says.
The devices Owen and Van As build are mechanically simple, focusing on functionality and the ease of repair, Owen says. Their designs have no electrical components of any kind.
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