Mastering a $110,000 Mechanical Arm

Excerpt: On 11/26/12, James Dao of The New York Times reported on Cpl. Sebastian Gallegos of the Marines who is among a small group of upper limb amputees who have had a pioneering surgery, known as targeted muscle reinnervation, that amplifies nerve signals that control prosthetic arms. He wears a $110,000 robotic device with an electronic motor and sensors able to read signals from his brain. 

Of the more than 1,570 American service members who have had arms, legs, feet or hands amputated because of injuries in Afghanistan or Iraq, fewer than 280 have lost upper limbs. Their struggles to use prosthetic limbs are in many ways far greater than for those who have lost lower-limbs.

With myriad bones, joints and ranges of motion, the upper limbs are among the body’s most complex tools. Replicating their actions with robotic arms can be excruciatingly difficult, requiring amputees to understand the distinct muscle contractions involved in movements they once did without thinking.

Upper limb amputees must also cope with the critical loss of sensation. Touch, the ability to differentiate baby skin from sandpaper or to calibrate between gripping a hammer and clasping a hand, no longer exists.

For all those reasons, nearly half of upper limb amputees choose not to use prostheses, functioning instead with one good arm. By contrast, almost all lower limb amputees use prosthetic legs.

Further information is in the complete NY Times article.

'Brain Scrambler' Aids Phantom Limb Pain

Walter Reed Army Medical Center  is now using Calmare Therapy as one of its methods used to eliminate phantom pain for amputees.

This therapy uses a biophysical rather than a biochemical approach. A 'no-pain' message is transmitted to the nerve via disposable surface electrodes applied to the skin in the region of the patient's pain. The perception of pain is cancelled when the no-pain message replaces that of pain, by using the same pathway through the surface electrodes in a non-invasive way.

Calmare Therapy Video

Ho Offers Calligraphy Catalog

A 24-page catalog of Ho, the amputee calligrapher's original work is now available from Malaysia.  The self-taught calligrapher managed to develop her own style of calligraphy after losing her upper limbs after an accident in 1990.

A Sample Page of Ho's Unique Calligraphy

The cost is $6.00 or RM18 plus $3.00 or RM9 postage. Contact:

He Lan Gui, 12F Jalan Hanag Jabet, 75200 Malacca Malaysia

ABC News Interview With Dr. Ted Carrick

A fascinating  ABC Chiropractic Neurology Interview with Dr Ted Carrick, a chiropractic neurologist of Marietta Georgia on the many non-invasive modalities he combines to correct the effects of brain trauma. In the clip, a young athlete with severe brain injury achieves dramatic movement success with the use of mirror therapy.

The Courage of Dr. BJ Miller

We at End The Pain Project are deeply impressed by the compassion and courage of Dr. Miller, a triple amputee and current head of the SF Zen Hospice Project.  Read the full article at SF Gate.

IASP Insight article by Moira Judith Mann: Vietnam Mirror Therapy Project Expands to Cambodia

The International Association for the Study of Pain's first issue of its printed member newsletter,  IASP Insight, includes Moira Judith Mann's Vietnam Mirror Therapy Project Expands to Cambodia. The full article, which appears on pages 16-17 in the June 2012 newsletter, can be read online at: http://www.iasp-pain.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Publications/IASPInsight/default.htm

Your Vote Needed by June 7 For ETPP to Win $5000

End The Pain Project Needs Your Vote by June 7 to Win $5000 for 2012 Amputee Projects in Rwanda & Indonesia

Moira Judith Mann, Co-Founder of End The Pain Project,has been selected as a finalist in the first online Marigold Ideas For Good Contest - http://www.takepart.com/thebestexoticmarigoldhotel/voting/april , one of 15 innovative people making a remarkable difference in their community or the larger world. The prize is $5,000. Starting May 31, all finalists are featured on the Marigold Ideas For Good Contest for a round of public voting from May 31-June 7.

And that's where you come in -- to cast your vote each day through June 7, and also urge your friends to vote daily for Moira Judith Mann before the contest ends at http://www.takepart.com/thebestexoticmarigoldhotel/voting/april  

What will End The Pain Project achieve when Moira Judith wins?

When you vote for Moira Judith Mann, you are voting to help End The Pain Project win $5,000. This prize will be dedicated In 2012-13 to:

• Bring Mirror Therapy training workshops to facilitators and amputees in Indonesia. Loss of limbs in Indonesia are due to the 2005 tsunami, road accidents, leprosy and other diseases.
  
• Send unbreakable mirrors to amputees in Rwanda along with Mirror Therapy training materials. Jean De Dieu Tuyisenge, a Rwandan-Canadian who lost a leg as the result of a machete attack, is currently helping End The Pain Project to network with rehabilitation and health centers that assist some of the 26,000 Rwandan amputees. Most are survivors of the 1994 genocide.
  

This contest is pretty cool, right? Of course, we can only win the $5,000 if you and your friends vote each day for Moira Judith Mann before the June 7th midnight deadline! Thanks for your support!  http://www.takepart.com/thebestexoticmarigoldhotel/voting/april

for further information about ETPP, please click http://endthepainproject.org and http://endthepainprojectupdate.blogspot.com.

Thank you for your support!