Robohand » Tag » Nonprofit organization

Doing the Impossible

Robohand — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 16:45:30 +0000

Written by Beth van As

I know this is really girly and probably super cheesy but I cried when I watched this video put together by Not Impossible Labs dedicated to Rich. As the wife who has been on this journey with Rich since he cut off his fingers, and being personally and emotionally invested in Rich and Robohand, it is quite scary when some one else puts something like this together and shows you how far your journey really has come.

I think people forget that Robohand is a Not For Profit organisation and that we do this in our spare time. We are not a massive organisation with many employees and an endless bank account. We are two individuals with a vision to enable the world. We now have a third member Leonard, who is handling all our communications, media, and the business side of Robohand. Plus he still jumps in and makes hands when he can. He attends all the events when time allows and interacts with people where Rich is bombarded and there is not enough of him to go around.

We do not have a Web design team that handles our Website, Facebook and Twitter accounts. We do not have an admin clerk that handles all 7 email accounts of hundreds of queries we get everyday. This is done by Rich and myself. In our spare time. We have friends like those at Pixel Magic who gave us guidance by redesigning our website and making it easier for me to manage, Schalk Heunis from House4Hack who donates his time to help out at Robohand HQ, my sister who translates for us and sits on our committee to keep us centred.

When I look back over the passed months and I watch a video like this one put together by Not Impossible Labs, I cannot believe how much we have achieved in such a short amount of time – and that in our spare time too!

We rely solely on donations from the public. The kits that we put together and send all over the world, are charged for but cover material costs only. Everything else comes out of our back pocket or from the public’s generous donations. We do not get paid for the time that we spend making hands for people or educating the public on how to make hands.

When we were approached to open a Robohand office in the USA and Australia we realised that there are very passionate people all over the world who want to contribute in some way. Unfortunately everyone needs to earn a salary to be able to live and give back to their communities. It is for that reason that both our International offices charge for their time as well as their material. This is their full time job. It takes approximately 10 hours to fit a Robohand to an individual. This excludes the 5 hour print time for the parts of the Robohand. Each fitting is customised and very personal. It’s almost like going to the doctor’s office. And going forward Rich will be charging for his time too.

I am going to put it out there now. Robohand will charge US$2000.00 for a customized fitted Robohand. Whether it be in person or via a long distance collaboration. This is very cheap considering Robohand is not mass produced.

The design and files are free and available for download from the internet. We are happy for people to make their own Robohands. Collaborate with your school, University, Friends and Colleagues to help someone in your community. Purchase a Robobeast printer which has all the design files already on it and enable people in your community. Upload your pictures and your stories to our Facebook page. Spread the news and engage with people who have upper limb differences. Or contact one of our offices, have an assessment done and Robohand will create your medically safe Robohand for you.

My heart bleeds for the thousands of amputees all over the world and I wish that I could wave my magic wand and they could all have Robohands for free. Unfortunately this is not the reality we live in. Each person that comes through our doors walks a journey with us and us with them. When I see the smiling faces frozen in time on a photograph or video, it makes my heart smile wider than I thought possible. When I think about the dreams of people who have received Robohands being realised, I get a funny feeling in my stomach and it makes me glow with happiness.

From the beginning Robohand has been about enabling. Not Impossible Labs took that to the next level with Project Daniel when they went to the Sudan. I get goose bumps when I think about the amazing things that are happening there and how many people will be enabled due to their generosity.

Take your future into your own hands. Go and ENABLE!

Technology Today

Robohand — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 19:40:57 +0000

A few months ago, CAD House donated a Cubify 3D printer to Robohand to assist with building our print farm.

Today, after Robohand had a meeting with Bernard, the owner of CAD House, he graciously gifted Robohand a scanner and sculpting software. This is a great enhancement tool for Robohand.

The sponsorship of the Cubify 3D printer, the Sense scanner and Sculpting software, now makes a complete Cubify package for Robohand.

Thank you to Bernard and CAD House for your generosity and willingness to help out Robohand.

CAD House has just launched their CAD Lab which encompasses a complete 3D Development solution with membership plans to suite every budget. Not only do they offer great products and software but now you can sign up for a membership to use their awesome products.

Visit them at http://www.cad-house.co.za/ for more information or via Facebook https://www.facebook.com/3DPrinterRSA

3D Printing Enabling War Torn Communities – Robohand and Project Daniel (Not Impossible Labs)

Robohand — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 21:17:00 +0000

Written by Beth van As

7 January 2014

In October of 2013 Rich flew to Los Angeles, USA, to meet up with Mick Ebeling and the group from Not Impossible Labs. His soul purpose was to teach Mick how to put together a Robohand and Roboarm.

The few short days they had in LA together were not enough to transfer the knowledge so Mick flew to Johannesburg, South Africa on his way to the Sudan to spend a few extra days with Rich to complete his training. The best was he had a live subject to practice on!

Mick’s journey began when he heard about Daniel Omar who was only 14 when he had his arms blown off in the Sudanese war. Once Robohand launched their Roboarm, Mick contacted Rich about Project Daniel where Rich designed a new hand for the Roboarm which has been called the “Daniel Hand”. The new signature for Roboarm.

Mick arrived at the Robohand workshop and not much sleep was had over the 3 days he was here. It was a whirlwind of activity and when I arrived home from work on day one, I was enveloped by Mick and put to work setting up all the laptops and equipment to ensure everything would be working correctly when they set up in the Sudan. There is no internet access in the Nuba Mountains so we needed to ensure that all automatic updates and any internet related system tech was turned off. We needed to download the correct software for the Makerbot’s that he was taking with him.

The workshop hummed and sang with all the printers working furiously, mostly 24/7, spewing out meters and meters of PLA, creating the pieces for the Roboarms for Mick to practice with, as well as stock to take to the Sudan. Learning how to ensure the sizing is correct, rendering the files and sending them to print. Unlocking all the SD cards and ensuring that Mick had all the correct files to print the Roboarm. When you don’t know anything about 3D printing these small things can seem a bit daunting.

Then it was ensuring Mick understood all the fundamentals of Roboarm; how the mathematics worked, so once fitted the arm functions; learning all the little things like molding Orthoplastic, stringing fingers, adjusting cables and assembly. A lot of knowledge to cram into a very short space of time. Rich was ever the teacher, instructing but also encouraging “out the box” thinking when Mick hit a stone wall. Rich teaching him to pull from his surroundings and not only rely solely on technology; be creative and use what is around you.

At the same time that Mick arrived, Ty from Altanta, was also at Robohand learning all she could to enable her to set up the Robohand clinic in Atlanta, USA. It was a crazy time in our household; very emotional hearing about Daniel as I know the joy when a person receives a device that can change their life forever. When Mick fitted the Roboarm he had created to his guinea pig the tears were evident in the recapture at the workbench that evening. During our discussions there were some things that did not need to be said as the raw emotion was plain to see.

To be part of a project like this one with Daniel, took Robohand back to our roots. Helping others help others. Spreading the knowledge and enabling communities to help themselves. The hardest part for me is not having enough funding to do this all over the world.

Following are some of the pictures taken during our Not Impossible Visit.

A Response to the “Open Letter”

Robohand — Sun, 08 Dec 2013 14:36:00 +0000

Gauntlet

When I logged in to our web content today, I was surprised to find a very long comment posted under our Open Letter blog post. After reading through the content I got very excited and contacted the writer to enquire if I could re-post his comments as a full blog post. He gives good advice on how to use and mold the Orthoplast that Robohand use for making our mechanical devices and I think this will aid many of you that are trying this for the first time.

Crispin Miller, an independent biomedical design professional has this to say:

“I have some tips to offer about forming Orthoplast, the splint/socket material you shape by softening it in hot water. (This stuff:
http://www.medical-supplies-and-equipment.com/product_more.wcs?pid=00001325
– though I don’t know this particular vendor.)

I worked intensively with this material for several months, making specialized splints and mounts for biomechanics experiments I conducted for my master’s thesis on prosthesis design.

I found it to be an extremely adaptable material, but this same versatility means that it takes practice and attention to control what shape you get. This was underscored to me ten years later when I found myself on the other side of the counter — getting fitted with a splint after I’d hurt my hand — and the young man making it had not been adequately trained for forming the material. I had to go home and re-mold the splint myself, to get rid of just such a pressure point as therapists Esham, Poole, and Scheuber are warning us against.

Here are some things I’ve learned:

1. To form a splint around any part of the body other than perhaps the straight part of the forearm, you have to create some “compound curvatures” — requiring stretched areas in the material. Otherwise when you try to put it around areas which narrow and flare (such as the transition from forearm to wrist to hand), it will form big folds or wrinkles, departing from the natural shape of the body part underneath (think of how some flexible-but-not-stretchy leather would behave) — and these rumples will have an obvious risk of being pressure points. This was the trouble with the splint I had to fix.

To avoid these mis-fitting areas takes attention and practice. Perhaps highly skilled practitioners can do it by themselves (as a single person working), but in my experience a good job on something like a whole-arm splint also required having four hands on the work. One forgiving aspect is that you can reheat the material repeatedly, so as to proceed in multiple steps — on the first heating, softening the material and wrapping it on, you probably just learn what size to trim it to. Maybe also you can see where you’ll need to stretch it, and maybe get it suitably stretched on the next heating. And if you’re lucky, then that time you may still have time also to take the piece, once stretched, and get it suitably wrapped around the limb, before it cools and stiffens up. Or you may run out of time and need to throw it back in the hot water, which means you lose some of your shaping work (but maybe not too much of the stretch) — and then you try again, making sure to position it the same as before so that the trimmed edges and the stretched area(s) are still where you need them to be.

2. We found that the work was easier if you did some extra temperature manipulation of the material –

– the simplest part of this was that once you do have the piece formed the way you like it, and you’d like to go ahead and firm it up, you can sponge it with cold water and then you don’t have to keep sitting there holding it in place for so long. So we prepared both a hot-water dishpan and a cold-water dishpan, with big sponges in both, and if we needed to buy extra time on some part of the piece, we could keep it warm with the warm sponge, and once we wanted to solidify it we could cool it with the cold sponge. Typically we had three hands holding the material and the fourth hand applying the sponge. There’s a significant time lag you need to expect, for either heating or cooling, because the material takes time to change its temperature all the way through.

– for the initial stretching, it helps to have the material soaked in hotter water than you’d use for fitting it onto the wearer — BUT you cannot wrap it onto someone’s arm when it’s that hot! Do the stretching you need, then cool it off and check it against your own (scrubbed) skin, then wrap it on.

– One way we learned to speed this up was to sponge the wearer’s side of the hot material with a quick, uniform wipe of cold water and then wrap it on, while the rest of the material thickness was still nice and flexible — BUT this was with a fully able-bodied volunteer subject with no sensory or circulatory impairment, who could let us know if the splint was feeling too warm and should come off — so do think carefully about this approach, and test it on yourself first, to learn for example whether the interior of the material may be holding more heat than you think. If you’re working with someone who has any damage to skin, or to nerves, or to circulation, I wouldn’t use this trick.

– unless you have a thermostat-controlled water bath, never wrap any piece of heated Orthoplast onto someone without checking the material temperature against the back of your own hand first.

3. A technique I haven’t seen clinicians do, but that I’ve found invaluable, is to do finishing details by local heating afterward, with the splint off of the wearer. This lets you soften and fix small areas without losing the overall shape. Two examples of things this lets you do are:

– flare the edges, at places that would poke or dig when the limb is pressing against them;
– soften the appropriate spot on top of the wrist and poke a good outward bulge into the surface there, about an inch wide, to avoid pressure at the place where the ulna makes a lump there (a lump which varies as you twist the wrist, by the way!)

One way to do this local heating is with a workshop “heat gun” (a hair dryer on steroids), but do be careful and patient, because a heat gun can scorch the material if you try to soften it too quickly.

One extra trick with a heat gun is that you can WELD this material, face to face, if you want to apply a thickening patch or splice a bracket on, or something. One of the two pieces should be softened so it will mate tightly, and then you quickly heat both faces strongly but briefly with the heat gun and press them together.

A kinder-gentler way I found for forming finishing touches, though, was to use a small steam jet. You still have to take care not to scald yourself, but you won’t scorch the material. What I rigged up was a Pyrex flask of water on a lab hotplate, with a one-hole stopper and a bent copper tube (to send the jet sideways so I could see what I was doing). Less elegantly, you could use the spout of a pressure cooker with the pressure weight removed.

If any of this leaves you questions, I’ll try to respond –

best regards and good luck,
Crispin Miller, PhD mech. engr’g Lincoln, Massachusetts”

Open letter to Robohand DIYers

Robohand — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 15:45:00 +0000

Important Safety Information for the Robohand

Greetings,

My name is Tyhanna Esham, OTR. I am an Occupational Therapist with twenty years of experience. For the past ten years I have specialized in hand therapy in Atlanta,Georgia.

Recently, I returned from Johannesburg SouthAfrica where I studied Robohand design with its creator Mr. Richard Van As. Since his accident two years ago resulting in amputation of several digits, Mr. Van As (an amputee himself and having an intimate knowledge of the unique issues facing hand deficit individuals) has devoted much of his personal time, finances and knowledge toward developing cost effective, functional and safe uses for the Robohand design.

Regarding Construction of the Robohand:

Use Robohand design #44150 (thingiverse) for durability. The “Snap Together” Robohand model (thingiverse # 92937) was intended for demonstration use only. It lacks strong, secure hardware and is prone to failure with heavy use.
Use quality hardware as listed in the Assembly Manual. Lesser quality hardware may result in failure, rusting, poor cosmetics and most importantly a dysfunctional Robohand that could cause injury and infection. Stainless steel hardware with dome nuts must cover exposed screws to prevent injury to the wearer or others. Although stainless steel adds to the initial cost of a Robohand, it is stronger, safer and less likely to cause injury/infection making it more medically appropriate. Another benefit of stainless steel hardware is that it can be reused in upgrades as the child grows or as the Robohand is updated or replaced.
Custom moulded Orthoplast is medically appropriate for Robohand use, provides an excellent surface for pressure distribution during use of the Robohand, thus decreasing the likelihood of pressure areas and injury. It is recommended that an experienced Occupational Therapist or Hand Therapist do the moulding. PLA plastic should not be used on bare skin. Although low cost and somewhat mouldable when heated, the PLA plastic’s pitted surface will collect sloughed skin cells, becoming an excellent breeding ground for bacteria. Its’ rough edges, pitted surface and inferior custom moulding characteristics make it likely to chaff the wearer causing skin lesions that may become infected. Medical Orthoplastic, when used by an experienced practitioner, is easily moulded, modified and cleaned. Use of zip ties, duct tape, and ill fitting, make shift items, like shin guards are likely to cause pressure areas. With continued use, these inappropriate items are likely to impair circulation, irritate fragile skin, sensitive scars, compress nerves and cause skin lesions.

Regarding Application/Use of the Robohand:

Robohand should only be used by children/individuals with good skin integrity and intact sensation who possess the mental capacity to safely wear and properly use it. Children should be of an age to request and understand the purpose of the device.
Wearers must inspect their skin regularly to ensure safety of fit. Any problems must be promptly addressed to prevent injury.
Amputations, crush injuries, burns and multiple or recent surgeries often result in fragile skin, compromised circulation, sensitive scars, and painful neuromas. These issues can take years to resolve and may result in a life long struggle. This last scenario is made more likely if an ill fitting device is applied or any device is applied when inappropriate. Burn victims and individuals with hyper sensation or lacking sensation are generally not good candidates for Robohands.
Please do not use children for R&D purposes as they are often unaware or unable to reliably report pain resulting from an ill fitting device.
Consult with an Occupational Therapist or Hand Therapist to determine suitability and proper fitting.

Parting Thoughts:

Robohands are a tool that can enhance performance of certain tasks; they should not be presented as a panacea. We need to be mindful of not creating unrealistic expectations. Sometimes other devices or adaptations are more helpful.

While I admire and encourage exploration of 3D printing technology to expand ways to help people with limb deficiencies find functional, low cost, life enhancing devices, I recommend the use of consenting adults who will participate in follow-up during the R&D process.

I too am excited about the new Robohand technology, but I must emphasize caution and discretion with its use. Children, their parents, and adults with limb deficiencies may be experiencing physical and emotional difficulties that people with normal limbs cannot imagine.

Let us all tread lightly and first, Do No Harm.

Sincerely,

Tyhanna Esham OTR/L RobohandUSA

Lynda Poole, OTR Paediatric Occupational Therapist

Grae Scheuber BSc(Hons), RobohandAustralia

Some things you should know about Robohand devices

Robohand — Wed, 30 Oct 2013 07:58:00 +0000

Robohand uses 3D printing to provide functional, safe, cost effective upper extremity assistive devices to help enable any individual with an upper limb difference.

Overview and Expectation of Robohand devices:

Device	Assessment Criteria	Benefit
Robofinger(The Tradesman Finger)	If people are missing the PIPJ[1] & DIPJ[2] then your MCP[3] (knuckles) needs to have equal to or greater than 30⁰ (degree) motion	Improved Fine Motor Skills
Robohand	If people are missing all or partial fingers and/or partial hand, your wrist needs to have equal to or greater than 30⁰ (degree) wrist motion)	Provides gross grasp (All fingers open/close together)
Roboarm	If people are missing fingers / hand and wrist your elbow needs to have equal to or greater than 30⁰ (degree) motion	Gross grasp as above with palm up and down capabilities

– The design of Robohand uses the motion of existing joint(s) to mechanically move (or drive) the custom made device. Robohands are not myoelectric[4]and do not require invasive surgery. Nor do they have motors or battery packs that add weight, require maintenance and increase cost. They are environmentally friendly as the PLA they are 3D printed with is biodegradable.

Safety – Robohand creator, Mr. Richard Van As, has dedicated much of his personnel time, energy and financial resources to further his personnel belief that his inventions “DO NO HARM”.

Robohand uses medical Orthoplastic that is custom molded to the wearer to limit the possibility of skin lesions, infection and injury. The Orthoplastic used by Robohand is breathable, washable and medically approved for this type of use.

A Robohand device is custom fitted which adds to client comfort. A proven statistic is 25% of people with prosthetics do not wear them due to the fact they are uncomfortable. Using medical Orthoplastic ensures Robohand will remain medically fit for use and long term wear.

Robohand uses stainless steel hardware that is less likely to fail or break, does not rust or discolor and decreases the risk of infection/injury. Dome nuts are used to decrease the likelihood of injury to yourself or others. Stainless steel is more medically appropriate than cheaper hardware. Many of our clients like to swim and bathe in their Robohands and the stainless steel does not rust or discolor.

Cost effectiveness – Every effort has and will continue to be made to keep Robohand devices cutting edge with innovative designs to increase function and manage cost while maintaining Robohand’s devotion to high product standards with the safest materials available.

Robohand’s mission is to help enable people with an upper limb difference, be more independent and interact with the world so that they might live a full and joyful life.

[1]PIP: Proximal Interphalangeal Joint – this means the middle joint of your finger

[2]DIP:Distal Interphalangeal Joint – this means the end joint of your finger

[3]MCP: Metacarpal Phalangeal Joint – the joint between your hand and finger (knuckle)

[4]Myoelectric definition: A prosthetic control technique which utilizes skin surface EMG muscle potentials for the actuation and movement of an electric powered prosthetic component)

Tragedy Strikes but Miracles Happen!

Robohand — Sat, 13 Jul 2013 20:48:00 +0000

Meet Esethu.

Esethu is 13 years old and on the 25th December 2012 was in a horrific Taxi accident in South Africa where she was flung from the taxi through a window. Due to this accident Esethu lost her left hand completely from the wrist and her baby finger on her right hand. She also had her hip dislodged which causes her incredible pain and she battles to walk.

However, this brave young girl embraces life with a gorgeous smile and a thankful heart that she is alive, able to walk, talk and still do some of the things she could do before.

Esethu is in Grade 8 and attends a school in the Kempton Park area. She loves Maths in which she does extremely well. She has lots of friends who are incredibly supportive since her accident and when she grows up she wants to be a Civil Engineer.

Esethu and her mom Ncedeka came to see us a few weeks ago. Esethu met a young doctor at the Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital where she was being treated for her injuries. Dr Amy had heard about Robohand but because Esethu had lost her hand above the wrist and did not have the movement there to use a Robohand she wasn’t sure if we could help. But she contacted Rich anyway and they came for a consultation.<

We are very proud to announce that Rich has developed Robohand further than just the wrist and it can now operate from the elbow and shoulder.

Below are the pictures documenting the creation of Robohand using the elbow to drive the mechanical device.

Please visit our YouTube Channel to see the videos of Esethu using her Roboarm

Super Sized and Super Awesome!

Robohand — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 18:41:17 +0000

The Research and Development continues…

Reflections

Dylan was playing Cricket last week and put up his Robohand to catch the ball – and you guessed it – broke a finger. Lucky there were no hospital bills!

During the week Richard scaled up the Robohand to Adult size for Dylan and then used the plasti-dip to coat the entire hand and dip the fingers. He decided on the pearl finish and WOW how stunning!

When Dylan arrived at the workshop and saw the hand he totally forgot his manners and went straight for his new hand. He hauled a colleague out side with the camera so they could take pictures of his Robohand next to all the different colours to see the reflections.

Dylan has also been teaching himself to write with his Robohand. We are totally awed by his determination and committal to try anything once. He is definitely stretching the abilities of Robohand and we love it!

Keep it up Dylan!

The Hand – written by Richard van As

Robohand — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:09:00 +0000

Some of what I have written has some humour to it. Take no offence as this is who I am. With that said, it has got me through probably the most difficult time I will ever face in my life. Now and in the future.

I have been working with many different tools and machines that cut through all the man-made materials to make our lives easier, to decorate our dwellings, being creative etc.

I think most Tradesman don’t give it much thought about the dreaded day that may come, some of us, thankfully, will never have to have “that day when”. My day came on the 7^thMay 2011 at 15h30 on a Saturday afternoon. I had a deadline, like so many other times! Never was it on my mind that I would on this day cut off my four fingers on the right hand. I had to get a project out for a client, who needed the items I was making for a grand show on the Tuesday. Believe it or not, I still managed to get this done. Still put out quality guaranteed workmanship.

The actual re-hashing of the event is very much unclear to me. I think it’s because the brain seems to have blocked it out. I remember the machines noise and loss of power. Almost like it was suddenly straining to do the work. The most unbearable pain shot straight up into my neck. Almost like an electrical shock combined with ten tons of lead hitting me.

The smell of blood filled the air. I looked at my hand where the cause of pain originated. Oops! Two of my fingers where on the table saw bed. My first thought was, it’s not too bad! I started to convince myself immediately that a band aid could cure this one easily. Ha-Ha! This was going to take a touch more than a band aid.

I calmly went to the main switch to turn off the power as the machine was still running. Strange I never thought of switching the actual machine off. I took my fingers off the table saw and put them in my aprons pocket. It was horrific to actually pick up one’s own fingers. It was a very strange sensation and I could almost feel me putting pressure on them with my left hand. I wrapped my hand in the apron, which at this point was probably the most painful thing I have ever experienced. I then proceeded to think rationally as the initial shock had passed. I was short a chunk of flesh and one finger. I looked down at the machine where the blade has a dust collector and could see my ring finger. There was no way I was going to get this out in good time. I evaluated the situation and came to the conclusion that I will have to leave this one behind. My thought was that I could do without the ring and pinkie finger.

My workshop is off my residence on the same property. My family had just arrived from an outing about an hour before. I called my wife for assistance as my thought now was no longer a band aid, but a whole emergency room. Off to hospital. The trip up the road, about 10km was a long and painful few minutes. The moment I sat down the pain increased and became unbearable.

We entered the emergency room. At an emergency room one has a thing called triage. This is a system that enables the medical staff a process to help everyone there, in a way that urgent cases are handled first.

Needless to say I became first in the queue. All other ailments that were in the room at the time were put on hold. At this stage my two step daughters were in an absolute state and crying uncontrollably. Arrangements were made for them to go to their Dad.

The emergency staff were taken back by this; taking fingers out my apron was quite a shock for all.

It took a while for things to sort of settle down and some order restored to the process in dealing with this. People are just human and I think that nobody is actually prepared for something like this at a drop of a hat. The ER Doctor eventually took charge and got the nurses with the necessary equipment ready to deal with the hand. A messy bit of work proceeded. When the cleaning and disinfecting started, that’s after I was pumped full of painkillers, I asked and opted to clean this myself, as cheeky as this was I was the one who was dealing with the pain and didn’t want any touching done. No matter how sensitive to my pain it was going to be. Its then while cleaning my hand and seeing all the inner workings that I decided that I will make myself some fingers again.

Once we had the hand cleaned and disinfected my wife and I had to make a decision about where we were going to have this repair done. A private or government hospital. Then more denial set in. My initial thought was that a bit of sewing up the wounds and chopping off the bits and pieces would have sufficed. Only after a chat to the ER Doctor was it evident that we needed an Orthopaedic surgeon to fix the mess. There where pieces of bone to cut and trim, tendons and blood vessels that needed to be joined and attached to what was left. I needed some skin for a graph to close a section of the wound. I did wonder were they were going to get this. Chunk out my backside?

We decided to make use of a private health care. This came at a premium. I was admitted and went to a ward. There was an Orthopaedic surgeon contacted that was on call. I did feel a bit of guilt about taking him away from his family for a few hours. But also realised that this is what he does. And most accidents don’t happen at planned hours. But also knew that he would charge handsomely for his knowledge and service. When we first met this Doctor we thought he was very young and wondered if he could do this. Funny how we judge so quickly. At this stage I had bandages on and it was too painful to open it up for him to look. But seeing the x-rays it was evident to him that an operation room was the order for the day.

I gave him permission to make all the decisions for me on the table, with only a few things he needed to consider. Nothing that will create a long and tiresome recuperation period, which included cutting and repairing all bits and pieces needed. The Doctor left us to go prepare for the task I had given him for the repair. We followed the process to get to the stage where I went in for surgery. I think it was only after the actual surgery and having a closer look at the bandages, seeing that a lot of my hand is missing, did the actual reality set in. I channelled these feelings in to the prospect that I will overcome this and make a prosthesis for my hand. Not a pretty one to model jewellery, but a functional one. I completely removed the idea of failure to do so, probably not to deal with the feelings that one is supposed to have, like preparing myself for the grieving of the loss of the digits. My thinking was that such a horrific accident would be my down fall. I was determined to think positive and calculated in order for this not to consume me. A 3.5 hour surgery and the rest of Saturday night and Sunday morning were spent in the hospital. I wanted to go home around the time I got to the emergency room. All repaired and with reluctance from the Doctor I was home by Sunday 10h30. I was faced with having to disappoint my client with the task at hand that needed to be delivered on Tuesday for Wednesday. I spent Sunday figuring out how I was going to finish this work in time. There was no amount of planning for the amount of pain I was in. Monday came and I was most certainly not prepared for the amount of pain I had. I also had to face the machine that I cut my fingers off with. I decided that digging deep down within; “I” was the answer. I decided to ignore all the symptoms of the accident and get on with it, got back up on the horse. I used the same saw, cut the wood, assembled the items and finished them in good time. The task was done and dusted. I was very pleased with myself. With this great feat I instantly knew that I would heal up and continue wood work. Just maybe a bit slower. It is a constant battle that would wear any one down. But I still remain optimistic that I will one day have good use from my hand and a mechanism to aid me in my daily tasks. >I had a bit of time after the accident and finishing the task at hand. All along with thinking how I will make an attachment. I perused the World Wide Web. Quite shocked I found nothing that money could buy at first. Then saw the X finger. I was excited! Only to have my little world crushed at the cost there of. I picked myself up and spent a few more hours looking, reading blogs and seeing how others were dealing with such injuries. It seemed that this was a lot more serious than I first thought. Looking at how and what I had read. It made me more determined to not let this get me down. After seeing how badly this affected other people. I made a choice, to lie down or get up and fight. With only these two options to choose from, I took the road less travelled. I chose to fight this!

There was nothing on the web other than the depressing stories I read of others and their accidents. I looked at robotic and bionic sights. Only to find nothing pertaining to adding one finger that was functional. But still I was determined to fix this.

I watched videos on line on how they replace tendons etc. in theatre and came to the conclusion that my initial thought of “how hard can it be to mimic a simple hand”, came to an abrupt end. I seemed to have to face a lot of denial as I continued on. If you sit back and at a quick glance look at the hand, its actual function is simple with a huge amount of complexities to it.

Only after typing in many different descriptions of what I was looking for, did I eventually find Ivan.

I think if anyone bumps into his videos and has a look they will think he has lost it. I being as serious as I was to find a solution did however sit up and study this hand he had made. I watched this video every morning for a good month. I made a few things in my workshop to try mimicking what he had made plus my ideas. It’s pretty frustrating having one thing working on ten different things and not being able to put them all together into one unit. I have never been one to ask for anything but eventually I decided to email Ivan. With not too much detail I simply asked if he was keen to “lend me a hand”. Excuse the pun. I was delighted and gobsmacked at the same time to read his reply. We were on I thought.

Little did I realise that it was going to be a great feat as he was a whole yesterday behind me with time zones. Here was this complete stranger to me, willing to help. At stages I had become despondent and ready to throw in the towel. Only to get a new idea emailed to me by Ivan. I use his mails as a pick me up quite often. You’ve got to realise that a good day and night spent on making a prototype can be a complete disaster and 90% rubbish. This in itself is debilitating. We to date are not quite sure how many cracks we have had at it. But I know that I often fail hopelessly with it and don’t tell anyone. I am sure Ivan has too. We don’t chat about this part as it is not the negative we desire.

A few emails back I suggested to Ivan that we somehow need to be in the same place at the same time to finish this. It is almost like we are cosmic twins on the same mission in different time zones.

The need has arrived for us to get together and put all our hard work and designs together. We need to be able to do this in one country. I have a full workshop with many different tools and machines, thus the plan for Ivan to come to sunny South Africa. We are desperately in need of funds to be able to travel and purchase materials that are of the best quality to bring our prototype to a close. It is currently functional and needs to be scaled down to such that only the top class materials will make it function 100%. For us not to share this at this stage will be doing some one short and creating false hope, as the materials used now are inferior and breakdowns are inevitable. With some funding we will be able to manufacture a quality usable / functional mechanism. Each unit will have its own comfort and application to the different hands, but there will be many aspects that we can make in multiple units. Which people can get from us at no cost if funding can pay for the materials? We have gotten it mounted to hands and movable parts functioning and now we are at the stage where we can put this knowledge to good use with better materials.

We have spent the time making the mistakes, fitting, pondering and it has paid off. Now we want one made from suitable material to test and fine tune its endurance and then make it available to others as a DIY kit.

Welcome

Robohand — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 20:17:00 +0000

For the last year, we have been on an adventure to create mechanical fingers that can replace lost digits.

Through research and development we have discovered that there are no functioning replaceable digits that don’t cost the earth. If you cut off your whole hand there are prosthesis widely available to you, but if you lost your fingers there are no replaceable digits.

Watch this space as we post and update you on our Journey of self discovery as well as the incredible work done to create fully functioning mechanical fingers for the lay man and hands for children. The first ever in the world!

For quicker updates follow our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/robohandsa