Technology

This Advanced Prosthetic is Already Changing Lives

A retired staff sergeant is the recipient of a special gift from the Alfred Mann Foundation.

In the future, medical technology will push the boundaries between machine and human. We can already ingest tiny computers that provide us with data about our bodies, but soon we’ll work together with computers and machinery in a way that has only previously been hinted at in science fiction.

That’s where Staff Sergeant James Sides comes in. Sides is now retired, but he suffered a debilitating injury during a patrol. He came across an IED, and, while attempting to diffuse it, suffered severe damage to his arm and blindness in one eye when the device detonated within close proximity. His right hand was completely missing, “shredded to the wrist” in his words, and his forearm was broken.

The Army managed to fix the immediate damage and helped him to recover, but the missing hand made it difficult for Sides to accomplish even basic tasks that you might take for granted. For Sides, activities like opening a soda can or pouring and drinking a glass of water suddenly became time-consuming tasks. The feeling wasn’t pleasant.

The Alfred Mann Foundation, which was founded in 1985 with the goal of providing solutions to these challenges, located Sides and decided to do something about his situation. They embedded an electronic device in his arm. The device reads the movements in his muscles and outputs that data into a language the prosthetic he wears can understand. Using these techniques, Sides has 3 ranges of motion and can open and close his hand or move individual fingers.

Although there are only seven of these devices in circulation, the Alfred Mann Foundation hopes that working with Steve Doctrow and the team of Rogers & Cowan will help bring these devices the attention they deserve. These important devices will help so many reclaim the normalcy that injuries can cause.