An Old/New Prosthetic That Works

"The best designs and innovations come from people who refuse to accept the definitions and limitations set be others" says Mark Lesek, an amputee inventor. Mark lost his arm several years ago. Now his search for a better prosthetic could improve the lives of amputees everywhere. 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4DDt30Aat4

Viewers can contact Mark at: mark@dynamicwelding.com

New Device Makes Wheel Chairs Obsolete

This device holds great promise for paraplegics and others confined to wheelchairs.

The TEK Robotic Mobilization Device is a machine developed to replace the wheelchair. In this demonstration video, we see a man with a severe injury to his spinal cord able to move about in ways that a wheelchair would make very difficult.

http://www.wimp.com/newdevice/ 

Affordable Prosthetic Knee Joint for Developing Countries Amputees

Pham Quy Thi upper limb amputee sheds 36 years of phantom limb pain with Mirror Therapy

Pham Quy Thi shares his amazing outcome with Robert Johnson PT

On November 23, 2013, Pham Quy Thi, a Vietnamese farmer, did not expect that his chronic phantom limb pain would be reduced just by concentrating on the movements of his intact hand in a mirror for ten minutes. Mr. Pham had lost his right arm in 1977 because of an exploding cluster bomb and suffered chronic pain in his phantom limb since then.

After just ten minutes of using Mirror Therapy, Mr. Pham exclaimed, "This is an amazing therapy! It is my very first time I have the chance to be experienced this and I know it works for me. I surely will bring this home and teach other survivors in my community”.

The fifty-eight-year-old was one of four land mine victims being trained by Robert Johnson of Achieve Orthopedic Rehabilitation and an Associate of End The Pain Project, to administer Mirror Therapy in a newly formed Peer-to-Peer program sponsored by Handicap International. The setting for this training workshop was the Mine Action Visitor Center run by Project RENEW in Dong Ha,Vietnam. 

Le Kien and Robert Johnson use a mirror to reduce Mr. Le's phantom limb pain

Mr. Le Kien was gardening in 1991 and struck a hidden cluster bomb. Not only did Mr. Le lose his left leg, he lost his baby daughter at the same time. Now a 55-year-old carpenter, he is a frequent guest speaker and story-teller at mine risk education programs for local school children.

In 1986, Hoang Xuan Phuong was tampering with an M14 mine also called a gravel mine in the vicinity of a former U.S. base when it exploded. Mr. Hoang was startled when he clearly 'saw' the mirror image of his lost arm. “It is the very first time, I can really recall my memory about my lost limb after more than twenty five years since the day I was amputated in a landmine blast”.

 Rear: Nguyen Thi Huong, Le Kien. Nguyen Xuan Tuan, Hoang Xuan Phuong, Phạm Quý Thí; Front: Phu Nguyen Thanh, Robert Johnson

The four volunteers at the Center also raise awareness of the many unexploded mines in Quang Tri Province and promote and advocate for the full application of the rights of persons with disabilities. 

This group was newly formed by Phu Nguyen Thanh, Facilitator/Support Staff at the Mine Action Visitor Center in August, 2013. Once the quartet have completed their own 30-day mirror therapies, they will go into surrounding communities to help other amputees still suffering phantom limb pain.

Huso, an upper limb Bosnian amputee in mirror session

Huso, an upper arm Bosnian amputee, was introduced to mirror therapy at an End The Pain Project workshop given in the Sarajevo headquarters of Hope '87, September '13. At the time he had been suffering phantom pain for over twenty years, a legacy from the war in Bosnia during the '90s.

Huso practiced the mirror therapy at home for thirty days, following a two times a day for fifteen minutes each session schedule. The outcome as Huso happily reports, is that the pain is reduced about 75% from what he had been experiencing.

Enter End The Pain Project as your favorite nonprofit on eBay in November

 For the month of November eBay will be hosting a sweepstakes where everyone who selects to follow their favorite nonprofit will be entered to win a $2500 eBay gift card for them, plus eBay will make a $2500 donation to their selected Nonprofit.

University of Leicester Insect Study could help boost biomechanical prosthetic limb development

Photo ©Tom Matheson

University of Leicester study shows insects can move without muscles using ‘clever biomechanical tricks’.

Neurobiologists from the University of Leicester have shown that insect limbs can move without muscles – a finding that may provide engineers with new ways to improve the control of robotic and prosthetic limbs.

The study, published in the journal Current Biology, helps to explain how insects control their movements using a close interplay of neuronal control and ‘clever biomechanical tricks’.

Research shows that the structure of some insect leg joints causes the legs to move even in the absence of muscles. So-called ‘passive joint forces’ serve to return the limb back towards a preferred resting position.

The passive movements differ in limbs that have different behavioral roles and different musculature, suggesting that the joint structures are specifically adapted to complement muscle forces. The researchers propose a motor control scheme for insect limb joints in which not all movements are driven by muscles.

Dr Tom Matheson, from the Department of Biology at the University of Leicester led the research and said he hoped the research on locusts and grasshoppers would “spur a new understanding of how limbs work and can be controlled, by not just insects, but by other animals, people, and even by robots”.