By Emily Berry
Staff Writer
Holding a string trimmer with one prosthetic arm as he trimmed grass in his front yard, Jesse Sullivan said he was only following his doctors’ instructions to make good use of his high-tech arms.
“They told me not to bring them back looking new,” he said of his prosthetics.
Mr. Sullivan, 59, has become the test pilot for cutting-edge prosthetic technology. After losing both arms in an electrical accident in 2001, he became the first recipient in the country of a prosthetic arm controlled by nerves rather than external levers.
His left arm prosthetic is connected to three nerves in his chest that once controlled his flesh-and-blood arm. When he moves his phantom limb, his prosthetic moves. He can move his arm from the elbow, rotate his wrist, and open and close his prosthetic hand.
Now researchers at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland are working to perfect an even better prosthetic that doctors hope will help war veterans who lost limbs.
Mr. Sullivan has tested a prototype that allows even more movement than his current one, and he’s eager for it to be perfected.
The six-motor prosthetic he tested last year doubles his range of motion so that he can rotate the lower part of his arm and extend his arm from his shoulder.
Mr. Sullivan wants his own, but he also has in mind the veterans who have lost arms while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Because younger veterans could be using prosthetics for decades, the federal government through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is funding the work to improve the technology.
“Our soldiers aren’t just soldiers. They’re mothers and fathers. They’re musicians and athletes. Let’s give them an arm so they can play the piano. Let’s give them an arm so they can throw a curveball or know what it feels like to hold their child’s hand,” project manager Col. Geoffrey Ling said in a speech about the prosthetics research program.
Jaime Cavazos, spokesman for the U.S. Army Medical Command, said 432 U.S. service members have lost at least one limb in Iraq fighting and 76 of those have lost multiple limbs.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory won a $30.4 million federal government contract in February to start the four-year Revolutionizing Prosthetics research program, according to a news release from the university. The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, where Mr. Sullivan has been fitted for his prosthetics, is one of many agencies assisting in the research.
Mr. Sullivan said it makes him extremely proud to be even a small part of something that could help veterans.
“They should have the best,” he said. “For some young person, this (could) make him feel like he’s worth something again and give him some of his dignity back.”
E-mail Emily Berry at eberry@timesfreepress.com
Staff Writer
Holding a string trimmer with one prosthetic arm as he trimmed grass in his front yard, Jesse Sullivan said he was only following his doctors’ instructions to make good use of his high-tech arms.
“They told me not to bring them back looking new,” he said of his prosthetics.
Mr. Sullivan, 59, has become the test pilot for cutting-edge prosthetic technology. After losing both arms in an electrical accident in 2001, he became the first recipient in the country of a prosthetic arm controlled by nerves rather than external levers.
His left arm prosthetic is connected to three nerves in his chest that once controlled his flesh-and-blood arm. When he moves his phantom limb, his prosthetic moves. He can move his arm from the elbow, rotate his wrist, and open and close his prosthetic hand.
Now researchers at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland are working to perfect an even better prosthetic that doctors hope will help war veterans who lost limbs.
Mr. Sullivan has tested a prototype that allows even more movement than his current one, and he’s eager for it to be perfected.
The six-motor prosthetic he tested last year doubles his range of motion so that he can rotate the lower part of his arm and extend his arm from his shoulder.
Mr. Sullivan wants his own, but he also has in mind the veterans who have lost arms while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Because younger veterans could be using prosthetics for decades, the federal government through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is funding the work to improve the technology.
“Our soldiers aren’t just soldiers. They’re mothers and fathers. They’re musicians and athletes. Let’s give them an arm so they can play the piano. Let’s give them an arm so they can throw a curveball or know what it feels like to hold their child’s hand,” project manager Col. Geoffrey Ling said in a speech about the prosthetics research program.
Jaime Cavazos, spokesman for the U.S. Army Medical Command, said 432 U.S. service members have lost at least one limb in Iraq fighting and 76 of those have lost multiple limbs.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory won a $30.4 million federal government contract in February to start the four-year Revolutionizing Prosthetics research program, according to a news release from the university. The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, where Mr. Sullivan has been fitted for his prosthetics, is one of many agencies assisting in the research.
Mr. Sullivan said it makes him extremely proud to be even a small part of something that could help veterans.
“They should have the best,” he said. “For some young person, this (could) make him feel like he’s worth something again and give him some of his dignity back.”
E-mail Emily Berry at eberry@timesfreepress.com
