by Roy Exum
posted May 9, 2008
 Roy Exum |
Kamen, who invented the Segway scooter and all kinds of other magnificent things, has dedicated his talents towards revolutionizing attitudes, quality of life and our awareness. But the tape is how he and his team of America's brightest built an artificial arm, which includes a hand that will pick up a pencil, in just 13 months.
So yesterday, on a day when I was finally able to "graduate" from two months of daily IV antibiotics to oral medicines, I forwarded the clip to a bunch of my Internet buddies in my daily routine and, by 8 o'clock last night, six had written me back to wonder when I was getting one.
My right arm may be banged and battered, but, to begin, nothing takes the place of what comes as original equipment. To cop a political line, I am currently not a candidate. As long as I can put my right hand in my pocket and distinguish between a dime and a quarter, just by touch, and button up my britches every morning I'm quite happy with my original factory parts.
But because I type every day with only my left hand and am unable to do some other things I wish I could, I have a heightened awareness for the young men and women who have been maimed defending our freedom, as well as others who wear one type of prosthesis or another.
I am a growing zealot for anything that can be done to better the care of our maimed soldiers, to give them the ability to hold their children or pass a Communion plate, and we must never forget what they left behind so we as a nation can move forward.
It wasn't lost on me that in Kamen's wonderful introduction of the new arm, he said a defining moment in his decision to take on the project was at Walter Reed Hospital when he met with some of the soldiers who need such a device. "This one kid who was missing his left arm laughed and said, 'I'm pretty lucky ... I'm a righty,' he said, waving his right arm ... but when he pushed away from the table I saw he had no legs..."
Well, I just love stuff that makes me tingle. The "Luke Arm," as it is being called because it is so similar to the prosthetic worn by Luke Skywalker in the movie Star Wars, is "big medicine" to the young people who crowd our orthopedic hospitals and the marvelous device is now undergoing clinical trials.
A year or two ago when I was at Minnesota's Mayo Clinic I saw one of the new-generation artificial arms and was shown how impulses from your brain will cause the little motors within the flesh-colored silicone to do all sorts of things. I told the technician my brain hasn't had an impulse since 2001, but laughed and assured me they can teach anyone who is willing to use the arm.
The Kamen tape is one every child should see. Kamen himself is a college dropout, but he's perhaps one of the biggest advocates in the world about the need to teach science, health and technology to even our youngest children. He's now working on water-purification ideas for poor countries, alternate power for cars and all kinds of urgent needs.
But he, the guy who invented a wheelchair that will climb stairs and an infusion process so I won't have to make daily trips to the hospital, needs help. You see, he knows there are kids out there who can do anything they set their minds to do - be it to invent a better wrist joint or learn to wear the "Luke" prosthesis.
So if you get time, please watch the tape on your computer by typing in http://www.ted.com:80/talks/view/id/82 - it is absolutely amazing and quite inspiring and if you can watch it with a child, it is even more fun.
Finally, I learned many years ago to "never say never" and, if indeed I lost my arm, be it to further infection or some late-night knife fight, it is nigh impossible for me to tell you what I'd do, but I would probably go with the old "stick and hook" instead of the revolutionary "Luke Arm."
The way I figure it the new devices are hard to make and harder to come by. If they dole them out according to need, there are a lot of bright, young war heroes who deserve Dean Kamen's latest miracle much more than me and those kids - believe this -
- are our future.
royexum@aol.com
| Dining Out | Business | Movies | Focus | About Us |
| Church | Living Well | Memories | Outdoors | Real Estate | Student Scene | Travel |