Bionic Fingers!

I seen something on the news that just fascinates me. They are now working on and have in operation something called Bionic Fingers. This interests me because I have a granddaughter who was born with no fingers, only a thumb on one hand. When she was small she traveled back and forth from Lakin, Kansas to St. Louis, Missouri where she underwent several surgeries that were simply gruesome.

Doctors would take a tiny piece of bone from her toe and transplant it to her hand where a finger should be. Then she wore an apparatus that needed to be turned every day and the theory behing that was that would make a finger grow there. Needless to say, it did not work!

Now many years later, a set of fingers has been specifically built for a man who lost his fingers and retained his thumb. This apparatus is fitted to his hand. Each finger has a motor with sensors that attach to nerves in his arm. When he moves that muscle the sensor in turn moves the fingers. Now that the leap has been made it will be no time at all before this will be perfected and I can just see how this will help a lot of people, not just my granddaughter.

Having been born with no fingers on the one hand, she is what is called handicapped. She never knew this. I am the one who had a hard time remembering she was limited. She never looked on this as a handicap, just a limitation. I would hand her things with both hands and she would look at me funny. "Grandma, I can't carry all those!" Again I had forgotten. Teaching her to crochet was sort of out of reason.

Now she has two little boys, she cooks and cuts up onions, does everyday chores and has recently earned her Masters Degree. But think how nice that would have been for her to actually have 2 hands when she was doing this! I may actually be able to teach her to crochet, knit and all those 2 handed things I do!

One of these days I shall do a special entry on her, but first I have to get her permission to use her name and all the particulars, but for now it will have to do for you to know that I shine with pride over this little bit of fluff who has given me 2 great grandsons!