Man Demonstrates His New Bionic Hand

digitaldc writes with this excerpt from the BBC: "Last year, Patrick, a 24-year-old Austrian, decided to have his dysfunctional hand amputated and replaced with a bionic hand. He lost the use of his left hand after being electrocuted at work. Here he demonstrates the extra movement his new bionic hand has given him, opening a bottle and tying his shoelaces, and tests a prototype hand which will give him additional wrist movement."

Comments

Cybernetics is getting out of hand

[Anonymous Coward]

While I applaud the medical benefits of this research, I worry about the implications. If this becomes cost effective, insurance will strong arm people into replacement surgery instead of giving them a helping hand.

Re:Cybernetics is getting out of hand

[Noughmad]

If this becomes cost effective, insurance will strong arm people into replacement surgery instead of giving them a helping hand.

You mean that they will still give you a helping hand, only literally instead of figuratively?

Re:Cybernetics is getting out of hand

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, most insurance will only give you the finger.

Who?

[barrtender]

The summary (and later in the article):

He lost the use of his left hand after being electrocuted at work.

The article:

The patient, a Serbian national who has lived in Austria since childhood, suffered injuries to a leg and shoulder when he skidded off his motorcycle and smashed into a lamppost in 2001 while on holiday in Serbia.

Milo used a hybrid hand before deciding on the operation
While the leg healed, what is called a "brachial plexus" injury to his right shoulder left his right arm paralysed. Nerve tissue transplanted from his leg by Professor Aszmann restored movement to his arm but not to his hand.

I don't get it. Are they talking about two different people in the same article? They seem to be referencing the same person, but for some reason writing two articles on the same page about it.

I'm confused, I think.

Re:Who?

[barrtender]

Oh, it is two different people. I need to read closer.

A is 24, B is 26. A left hand, B is right hand. A was electrocuted, B was in an accident.

This article was kind of confusingly laid out, but I understand now. Go ahead and mark this thread down for "inability to read".

Re:The Empire Strikes Back IRL

[PPH]

Six Million Dollar Man.

Now get off my lawn!

Re:Zombie prosthetics?

[vlm]

"Electrocute" means "kill by electricity".

Not seeing a problem, sounds like it killed the nerves pretty effectively. Not sure why gangrene didn't set in on the other tissues resulting in immediate amputation, maybe it did, and all but the nerve tissue (obviously) recovered?

Seems like they made him better than he was before

[wren337]

Better, Stronger - Faster

Re:Zombie prosthetics?

[GrumpySteen]

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/electrocute

Willful execution by electricity is only one of two valid definitions.

Re:Oh.. his old hand didn't work.

[necro81]

he would have been king of the geeks for at least a day

No. He would have been a complete dumbass and suitably derided as such. Presently, upper limb prostheses can be replacements for lost or damaged limbs; they are not upgrades. Amputees can do quite well with their prostheses, and there are continual improvements coming along. But no one would claim that there's a prosthesis out there that matches, let alone exceeds, the human hand in more than one or two of a few dozen measures.

Re:That's not what "electrocuted" means...

[BradleyUffner]

Then what's the correct term for an electric shock that causes permanent but nonlethal damage to living tissue?

Shocked really fucking badly.

Re:Oh.. his old hand didn't work.

[Sir_Lewk]

To be fair, the prosthetic is kind of crap compared to a normally functioning human hand.

That that sentence is worth saying at all really just says how far we've come.

Obligatory

[Anonymous Coward]

Practice on a hotdog first.