Why I print!
Never ceases to amaze me just how much you can change a life with a printer. We met this young girl 4 months ago. She had suffered a traumatic amputation of her lower arm three months before we met. Here in Central America her future was not really bright as an amputee. Kids are brutally bullied. Employment can be difficult to find as an adult. But for some reason all the attitudes change with a prosthetic. Unfortunately few can afford one. When we met she refused to look at her arm and covered her face when I was measuring her. Now we just delivered her second arm as she is in a serious growth spurt! Her mom reports she loves the arm and is starting to use it just like her other one. We'll be making many more as she grows, all for free and the best unpaid job I've ever had. We've done about 100 of them now.
RE: Why I print!
What a wonderful thing you did for this little girl. Thank you and your wife for helping her Eric, and thank you for recognizing what a transformational change this would be for her given the cultural attitudes about amputees.
God Bless.
RE: Why I print!
That’s amazing! I did wonder if you could tell us a bit more how you got involved in this, and how others could do the same in their own countries? So many questions…
Like do you design the prints?, are there parametric open source prosthetic CAD models out there that can be used by people and resized accordingly? What do you print it in? How do people find you? Is there a recognised network that people can join? Do you have any advice for people looking to do this?
I’m not remotely near being able to do this with my 3d print skills but it would be a cool thing to aim for.
Never ceases to amaze me just how much you can change a life with a printer. We met this young girl 4 months ago. She had suffered a traumatic amputation of her lower arm three months before we met. Here in Central America her future was not really bright as an amputee. Kids are brutally bullied. Employment can be difficult to find as an adult. But for some reason all the attitudes change with a prosthetic. Unfortunately few can afford one. When we met she refused to look at her arm and covered her face when I was measuring her. Now we just delivered her second arm as she is in a serious growth spurt! Her mom reports she loves the arm and is starting to use it just like her other one. We'll be making many more as she grows, all for free and the best unpaid job I've ever had. We've done about 100 of them now.
RE: Why I print!
At the height of Covid we were sailing towards the Panama canal intending to pass through and head towards Vanuatu to help move medical teams around there with out 46 foot sailboat. We got locked down here pretty much and like we've done in the past we pitched in on some humanitarian work. Found a young man born minus part of an arm and was struggling with things. I knew there was a thing called 3D printing and someone with a working design. Learned about different printers and went with a Prusa Mk3S+. Getting it here was an adventure as supply lines are long, we are fairly remote. Found Team Unlimbited ( https://www.teamunlimbited.org) and learned to print making him his first prosthetic. Saw the huge impact it made on his life. Word of mouth brought in others and ended up with so many needing help we got a second Prusa. Got even busier and got a printer with a larger bed for large adult forearms that we were doing. Found PLA didn't like the tropical heat so we switched to PETG and sometimes PETG CF. Word of mouth kept spreading. Had a few supporters come on board (We are a 501(C)3) and it kept snowballing. Done 100 now, working on a design for above elbow loss, added occupational aids for holding things like eating utensils and spreading farther and farther now in two and soon three countries. All from a 46 foot sailboat and work on the settee. We are in a marina with no road access in the edge of the jungle but we have power (when it's working) from shore as well as solar and generator backup. We have just received the long term loan of a small houseboat to expand into as we have almost no room to live in the sailboat anymore!!!
Our plans for the Pacific are scrapped as if we left then the kids needing new ones as they grow would be abandoned and there are occasional repairs for adults. Our completely unplanned, unpaid retirement and we wouldn't do anything else now. God laughed at our plans and gave us a better job to do! If I can learn to print building the first arm then others could do it. The Team Unlimbited website has their info and it all works through OpenSCAD. You take a few basic measurement and plug them in and it generates the parts. There is some heat forming to do but it also gives you jigs to bend with. You can use hot water or a heat gun. You use Spectra fishing line for the tendon strings, orthopedic foam for padding and off the shelf silicone fingertips if the arm is big enough. We can do individual fingers (Nick finger design) hands and lower arms. Soon we hope to have an above elbow design which we will share the files freely.
It's estimated there's 1.4 million people that need a prosthetic in the world and under 10% will just receive 1 in their lifetime. We have found that you really need to be on the ground in the region you help. We have discovered cultural considerations we never imagined. Major trust issues with outsiders from the first world, sadly well deserved. But living here and being available has slowly brought down many barriers. I could go on and on. But kids need them even in the first world as insurance doesn't cover them until they stop growing. If you feel crazy you can move in to one of dozens of places I can think of and start. We'd be glad to offer knowledge to anyone freely. If I was a lot younger there's some pretty adventurous locations that would be an awesome place to start. But we seem to have found a permanent place here.
Many want to try and do it from the first world and ship them in. Many problems and complications. Here that approach left a very bad feeling about printed prosthetics but we are gaining trust because we are here, seen and becoming members of the community. All because of a few printers. Now our next dream is an XL or DeltiQ!
That’s amazing! I did wonder if you could tell us a bit more how you got involved in this, and how others could do the same in their own countries? So many questions…
Like do you design the prints?, are there parametric open source prosthetic CAD models out there that can be used by people and resized accordingly? What do you print it in? How do people find you? Is there a recognised network that people can join? Do you have any advice for people looking to do this?
I’m not remotely near being able to do this with my 3d print skills but it would be a cool thing to aim for.
Never ceases to amaze me just how much you can change a life with a printer. We met this young girl 4 months ago. She had suffered a traumatic amputation of her lower arm three months before we met. Here in Central America her future was not really bright as an amputee. Kids are brutally bullied. Employment can be difficult to find as an adult. But for some reason all the attitudes change with a prosthetic. Unfortunately few can afford one. When we met she refused to look at her arm and covered her face when I was measuring her. Now we just delivered her second arm as she is in a serious growth spurt! Her mom reports she loves the arm and is starting to use it just like her other one. We'll be making many more as she grows, all for free and the best unpaid job I've ever had. We've done about 100 of them now.
RE: Why I print!
That’s great. Maybe you could approach Prusa for sponsorship.
In terms of scaling what you’re doing, I guess you’d be looking at developing some kind of locally based training programme (with people like you becoming part of the community until the knowledge and skills were up to spec) and an international charity/sponsorship programme to pay for the printers, laptop and paying local salaries for the local people to take over from you. Do you think something like that would work?
RE:
Talked with someone there once last year. They don't really sponsor or donate from what I got.
Over the years we have been involved in a few different humanitarian works. I've come to the conclusion that first world scaling isn't always the best approach in small third world settings. I'd love to help people get started and pointed in the right direction. This stuff isn't that hard! But I'm getting too old to be chasing numbers and keeping multiple operations going any more honestly. I think the perfect candidates for this approach is someone with financial self sufficiency like we have social security. Or someone already living in a community where there is need. We also have 501(C)3 statues so that people who want to help can donate. It doesn't need a big staff and multiple operations. What it takes is commitment!
You need to learn how to function locally and we also have local partnering to keep us from screwing up in the culture, that's where I see many "scaled up" operations trip. Little things like colors are important in some places. There's acceptable and unacceptable. Social habits such as here you need to be low key and not pushy. Respect elders, etc. We have had to move through some minefield left by other groups who have done more long term harm than good. Leaving distrust of foreigners, etc. But I think our progress has been good, a local businessman said when we started people thought of me as a "loco" gringo who would be gone soon. But now they see we have stayed, we keep our word, we don't live extravagantly and we actually care about people. He said many still think you are "loco" but now (he says with a smile) you're OUR loco gringo. They now just want to make sure we won't leave as that is all too often the norm.
You can change lives and the world by being small, it just means living it out!
That’s great. Maybe you could approach Prusa for sponsorship.
In terms of scaling what you’re doing, I guess you’d be looking at developing some kind of locally based training programme (with people like you becoming part of the community until the knowledge and skills were up to spec) and an international charity/sponsorship programme to pay for the printers, laptop and paying local salaries for the local people to take over from you. Do you think something like that would work?
RE: Why I print!
Thank you for sharing your story and I'm so glad there are such helpful people in this community. This made my day.
RE: Why I print!
Incredible work, keep it up!