Beaming with delight little Deepak Paswaan shows off his normal body for the first time since undergoing surgery to remove the legs and arms of his underdeveloped twin growing out of his chest.
For years, Deepak, 7, from Bihar, India, had to suffer taunts and bullying from other children over the appalling disfigurement.
Some taunted him as a 'devil' and a 'freak' while others even viewed him as a god.
Look at me now! Deepak Kumar Paswaan, who was born with the legs and arms of his underdeveloped twin brother sticking out of his chest, shows of his new body for the first time since undergoing surgery
Howzat? Deepak is able to fully indulge his love of cricket after the operation to remove his extra limbs
Determined: But before the surgery Deepak struggled to enjoy his favourite sport
Hindu pilgrims used to visit his home to worship him as an incarnation of the god Vishnu, who is often depicted with more than four limbs.
Last year his family for help to get the unwanted limbs removed and give Deepak the chance of a normal life
And Deepak's world was turned upside down when leading surgeons from Bangalore's Fortis Hospital agreed to operate for free.
The pioneering surgery, which was carried out last year, would normally cost around £50,000, a sum his impoverished family could never have dreamed of affording. Happily the gruelling four-hour operation was a complete success.
Now fully-healed and looking like a healthy, normal seven-year-old, cricket-mad Deepak has been given a new lease of life.
He said: 'I can run faster than my two elder brothers - before I could never keep up. I really like my new body. It's much more fun. I am very happy.'
Footage from the sensational four-hour surgery will be shown on Channel 5 on Thursday night in Eight-Limbed Boy: Extraordinary People, at 9pm.
A prosthetic technology company has unveiled an ultra-realistic range of limbs with features such as freckles, hairs and even tattoos.
Scottish company Touch Bionics have been hand-crafting upper limb prostheses for years but have recently introduced a new photographic system that is designed to make passive prostheses look as real as possible.
Ultra-realistic: Scottish company Touch Bionics have recently introduced a new photographic system that is designed to precisely match a prosthesis to a person's skin tone
Touch Bionics add freckles and hair to help the prosthetic blend in
The products, which come in parts of fingers, whole fingers, hands or arms, are known as passive prostheses - although light joints can be built in so they can be manually bent into different shapes.
Made from high definition silicone, they are part of the 'Living Skin' range and are designed with the help of a patent-pending imaging system called 'Living Image'.
Living Image has been under development for a couple of years and was revealed on Tuesday at Las Vegas at the American Orthotic & Prosthetic Association National Assembly.
If a patient needs a single prosthetic such as a hand or finger, experts use the system to scan the skin tone, features and shape of their remaining limb.
The system, which simulates natural light for the best colour match, sends the resulting image via the internet to the production facility in Scotland. The resulting prosthetic is hand-painted to exactly match skin tone and appearance.
Perfect match: A prosthetic arm unveiled at the American Orthotic & Prosthetic Association National Assembly in Las Vegas
Livingimage: The device is used to make a passive prosthetic far more realistic
Touch Bionics spokesman Danny Sullivan, told Mail Online: 'We've tested the system on 100 patients and it has been very successful.
'Clients have been very satisfied, especially with the colour of the 'skin.' The aim is to create a prosthetic that is as close a match as possible.'
The scanning process removes the need for time-consuming and error-prone matching practices and results in a highly realistic prosthetic in a shorter amount of time.
'It used to take five weeks to create a finger and seven weeks to create a hand,' Mr Sullivan said.
'But the imaging system has shortened this process by two to three weeks. It's also more reliable and makes far better use of clinical time.'
There are several systems at Touch Bionic centres in the U.S and one in use in the UK at the headquarters in Livingston in Scotland. There are tentative plans to either sell or rent systems to other prosthetic centres.
'We want to bring living skin to as wide a population as possible,' Mr Sullivan said.
The company also unveiled i-limb ultra, an upgraded version of its flagship prosthetic hand solution, which they say is the most versatile prosthetic hand available.
It has multiple functions including pushing, pulling, stabilising, supporting, light grasping and typing. It is the only prosthetic that can gradually increase the strength of its grip on an object.
Mr Sullivan said living image could be used to create coverings for their latest products.
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.
The news that quadruple amputee Philippe Croizon swam the English Channel over the weekend reminded me of so many people I’ve written about, that I had to look in my files and bring you another inspirational list of people who are labeled as disabled in one way or another, but who still accomplished exactly what they were not supposed to be able to do.
1. Tom Willis
Tom Willis is a motivational speaker from San Diego who has no arms. He has a small appendage on his left side resembling a partial hand, but not on his right side. Willis arranged to throw out the first pitch at a 2008 San Diego Padres game through the TV station that broadcast the games. He pitched right across the plate with his foot and drew national attention. That experience led to Willis’ ambition to throw out a first pitch at every major league baseball stadium. The Pitch for Awareness National Tour takes Willis to different cities where he offers his motivational program to schools and civic organizations. He’s pitched at ten stadiums so far this year, and is scheduled next at the Texas Rangers game on September 30th.
2. Gabe Marsh
Ed and Ann Marsh of Guntersville, Alabama have birthed, adopted, or fostered 60 children altogether. Ann Marsh taught them all to swim for their own safety, and saw many of them on the Guntersville swim team. Then in 2004, they took home newborn Gabe, who had no legs and only one full arm. But Gabe wanted to swim like the rest of the kids, so at age five he jumped in with them -and swam! Now six years old, Gabe swims on the local team like his siblings. And he’s gaining speed with every meet.
3. Cody McCasland
Cody McCasland was delivered prematurely in 2001 missing several bones in his legs, and had other birth defects as well. He was not expected to live for more than a few days. Cody underwent multiple surgeries to correct defects in his organs and limbs. His legs were amputated in 2003. That same afternoon, Cody was caught trying to walk on his stumps! He was fitted with prosthetic legs and learned to walk immediately -and never looked back. He started using running prosthetics at age five. Cody runs, swims, plays games, and competes in athletic competitions. He’s won gold medals for both swimming and running, and hopes to represent the US in the Paralympic Games someday. At just short of nine years old, Cody is also busy speaking to groups about limb differences and promotes the Challenged Athletes Foundation.
4. Josh Sundquist
Josh Sundquist was nine when his left leg was amputated due to bone cancer. He took up skiing at age 13, and was a member of the 2006 U.S. Paralympic Ski Team. Sundquist is also the founder of a social networking site for amputees, LessThanFour.org. His book, Just Don’t Fall: How I Grew Up, Conquered Illness, and Made it Down the Mountain, became a best seller when it was released earlier this year. But that’s not all: Sundquist is a rapper, a dancer, and a wit, as you’ll see in The Amputee Rap.
5. Carly Fleischmann
Carly Fleischmann doesn’t speak. Her parents thought their severely autistic daughter would never communicate with other people. However, they devoted their lives to providing education and intensive therapy for Carly, which paid off spectacularly when she was eleven years old -that’s when she was introduced to a computer. Carly stunned her family and therapists by typing words almost immediately. The girl who never spoke poured her heart out about what autism is like. Now fourteen years old, Carly still doesn’t speak, but communicates with her family and teachers by computer, and everyone else through her website and her Facebook page.
6. Liu Wei
Liu Wei touched a wire and was electrocuted at age ten. He spent 45 days in the hospital and his arms had to be amputated. Liu’s parents insisted he learn to feed himself without arms so he could be independent. He became adept at using his feet, and at age 18 began to learn piano. Now 23, Liu performed on the TV series China’s Got Talent this past summer and brought the crowd to tears with his performance, playing the piano with his toes.
“For people like me, there were only two options. One was to abandon all dreams, which would lead to a quick, hopeless death. The other was to struggle without arms to live an outstanding life,” Liu explained to the judges on “China’s Got Talent.” Thankfully, Liu chose the latter option.
7. Bethany Hamilton
Bethany Hamilton was an accomplished amateur competitive surfer at age 13 and planned to surf professionally as an adult. But on October 31st, 2003, a tiger shark bit her left arm off as she was surfing in Hawaii. Even without her arm, Hamilton did not want to give up surfing. Within a month of the attack, she was back in the water. Not only did she have to relearn how to surf, but she had to face the fear that she might encounter another shark. In fact, she’s seen sharks while surfing a few times. Hamilton was awarded an ESPY in the category Best Comeback by an Athlete in 2004. By 2005, she was surfing competitively again, and turned pro in 2008. Hamilton wrote and produced the award-winning 2007 documentary of her life, Heart of a Soul Surfer. Hamilton has also appeared on numerous TV shows.
8. Callum Truscott
If you had no legs, you would, of course, want to play football (soccer). Callum Truscott does just that, on his school team of able-bodied classmates. The 12-year-old from St Austell, Cornwall, participates in swimming competitions and is taking dance classes as well. Callum was born with legs that end just below the knees. He wears prosthetics for soccer, rugby, and cricket. Although safety rules prevent him from playing official rugby matches, he is a star on the football team. Callum is also an endurance swimmer, recently beating most of his classmates in a 1,500 meter race. He wants to become a sports instructor someday.
9. Vinod Thakur
Vinod Thakur was born without legs. He learned to walk on his hands, and made his living repairing cell phones in New Delhi. Thakur taught himself to dance by watching hip-hop videos on the internet, and after only five months of practice, auditioned for the TV show India’s Got Talent. His performance in the first round of competition made him an instant star on the subcontinent. Thakur would like to open a dance school where he can teach other disabled people to dance.
10. Philippe Croizon
Philippe Croizon is a 42-year-old French quadruple amputee. In 1994, he was hit by 20,000 volts of electricity from a power line while working with a television antenna, causing so much damage that all his limbs had to be at least partially removed. Saturday, Croizon became the first quadruple amputee ever to swim the English Channel, which you can watch in this video. He expected the crossing to take around 24 hours, but completed it in just over 13 hours, using prosthetic flippers. Croizon’s next endeavor? He plans to swim the Strait of Gibraltor!
Liu Wei, a 23 years old armless pianist who lost his arms due to an electric shock when he was 10, did a marvelous performance in Aug. 08 China talent.
The Today Show recently ran a feature on an 18-year-old who was recently outfitted with ProDigits, the partial hand prosthesis developed by Touch Bionics. Michael Waldron was born with a congenital malformation that left him without four fingers on his right hand; through his life he has adapted to his disability, learning to perform in his high school orchestra and even play lacrosse without a fully functional right hand. But thanks to his new bionic hand, he was able to accept his diploma at graduation – and shake hands with the man who gave it to him. Tear-jerking video after the jump.
As we’ve mentioned earlier, ProDigits is a pretty exciting prosthetic – it shows off some of the leading artificial limb technology around, plus it’s already on the market. The hand can be custom tailored to each particular patient’s disability, as you’ll see in Michael’s case (his thumb fits into the device).
Myoelectric sensors along the forearm measure nerve impulses below the skin, which translates muscle flexing into finger movement. Each digit moves independently, they have pressure sensors to prevent crushing gripped objects, and the device is battery-powered. How much does all that cost? Roughly $70,000.
Check out the Today Show feature:
As you can see from the video, ProDigits does involve a learning curve. The prosthetic requires calibration to the individual user’s body, and it takes some practice to master. ProDigits can either be controlled via forearm muscle sensors (as seen in the video) or via remote pressure sensitive pads. Touch Bionics also markets the expensive but impressive i-Limb, one of a number of leading prosthetics that are integrated with the nervous system remotely.
Which is prosthetic?
Michael’s plight with social stigma is a common one, and one of the reasons that ProDigits can be outfitted with skin-like cosmetic sheaths (called LivingSkin). These “aesthetic restorations” are amazingly life-like, and frankly difficult to distinguish from a natural hand. You can even add artificial hair customized to your own, or add silicone tanning cream for the summer months. Outfitting your ProDigits with a cosmetic cover can help mitigate the unwanted attention that many amputees know too well.
At the Hub for a while we’ve been reporting on the prosthetics revolution, which has really taken off over the last few years. The competing RSPStreeper Bebionic Hand, which uses similar myoelectric sensors along the forearm, hit the market last month with a pricetag of $11,000. Some other prosthetics with more cutting-edge features are still in R&D. The Smart Hand, developed in Europe, is unique in that it sends electrical impulses back to the brain to restore the sensation of touch – but it isn’t yet available to the public.
It’s cool to see ProDigits in action, and to get a better sense of how it impacts the lives of its users. While many of these cutting-edge prosthetics remain outside of the financial reach of many amputees (and outside of their insurance plans), they are exciting nonetheless. Time will hopefully bring pricetags down, and give these devices the opportunity to change more lives.
Operation Restoration IV, a learn to surf clinic hosted by The Association of Amputee Surfers, took to the surf on Pismo Beach, Calif. to ride the waves from August 13th - 20th. AMPSURF is an organzation set up to help disabled veterans and local disabled, along with wounded active duty servicemen, to learn adaptive surfing and feel the healing power of the ocean and the sport. Photographer Ezra Shaw shows us the triumphs and challenges of the event. Regular viewers of this blog will recognize Shaw's terrific photography, which frequently appears here. ( 18 photos total)
Triple amputee Jake Speed rides a wave during Operation Restoration IV August 15 in Pismo Beach, Calif. Speed lost the bottom portion of both his legs and his right arm from frostbite when he was caught out in a storm in Greenland for three days while on a research trip. He received his prosthetic legs just two weeks ago. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Amputee surfer Timothy Norton changes his prosthetic leg to a special prosthetic leg made for use in the water August 15. Norton was a Section Sergeant May 1, 2008 when his platoon was assigned to clear houses in Mezrah, Iraq, and he was shot and had to have his leg amputated. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) #
Amputee surfer Mario Rodriguez catches a wave August 14. Rodriguez, USAF Retired, suffered a disarticulation of the right hip while serving overseas. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) #
Amputee surfer Greg Birkholz receives a hug from a volunteer after catching a wave August 15. Birkholz, who was one of the original founders of AMPSURF, lost his leg in a motorcycle accident. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) #
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All you art collectors out there. Here is a chance to get a Giclee copy of some of Ian M Sherwin work. Ian is planning on doing a whole series of Marblehead, Massachusetts paintings. His work is amazing.
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