A Burnham-On-Sea boy who was born with one hand has been fitted with a ‘life-changing’ prosthetic arm following a successful fundraising campaign.
Kaden, 8, was born without his left hand and, as Burnham-On-Sea.com reported here last autumn, a £13,000 fundraising campaign was started to buy a state-of-the-art Hero Arm.
Kaden’s mum, Colette Taylor, says that despite being offered plastic ‘prosthetics’ mainly for aesthetic purposes from the age of one, she wanted him to be able to make his own decision on the matter when he was older.
“For Kaden to be able to have two functioning hands would change his life,” she told us. “Being able to do the simple things like tying his own shoes, riding a bike without the worry of falling off to playing tennis at after-school club with his friends would be life-changing.”
Now, thanks to dontions from the Burnham-On-Sea community and Mark School, that target has become a reality and Kaden is one of the first in the UK to be fitted with a Spider-Man bionic prosthetic developed with the help of Marvel and Disney.
Kaden is now able to perform everyday tasks with the specially designed, 3D-printed prosthetics, designed to emulate their favourite superheroes.
The custom-made Peter Parker and Gwen Stacey Spider-Man bionic arms – developed by robotics company Open Bionics – feature myoelectric sensors which detect muscular contractions generated from muscle groups in the arm.
The intelligent Hero Arm works by using myoelectric sensors to detect underlying muscular contractions generated from specific muscle groups in the arm.
These muscle contractions are read via sensors on the skin and are then amplified and converted to intuitive bionic hand movements.
After seeing his new prosthetic for the first time, Kaden exclaimed: “The design is very artistic… I can’t believe I’m the first person in the world to get this!”
As well as the colourful aesthetic based on his favourite superhero, Kaden can now perform two-handed activities with new found confidence.
Within an hour of being fitted with his new Hero Arm, Kaden was able to enjoy his lunch with both hands, open a packet of crisps, pick up fruit and enjoy a smoothie.
Samantha Payne, co-founder of Open Bionics, says: “We’ve been working with Disney and Marvel for close to a year to create three Spider-Man looks, and we are all beyond excited to see them brought to life by the cool kids Safiyyah and Kaden.”
“We are now on the lookout for our Miles Morales. “If you know a super-fan with a below-elbow limb difference, we want to speak with them.”
Colette told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “We as a family are so overwhelmed with our community how so many rallied together including Kaden’s school to make this possible for him.”
“Coming home with his new arm and the first thing he asked to do was go for a walk so he could hold my hand on his left side melted my heart and this is now possible thanks to the generosity to others.”
