Sergio Peralta student USA He was born without one hand, and his engineering colleagues decided to create a prosthesis for him for better mobility, which changed his life, because as a child he always dreamed of playing ball with both hands.

According to the report, The Washington PostPeralta said his right hand didn’t fully develop, instead growing little fingers at the end of his arm. Since then he has learned to do all his daily activities like writing, eating, carrying books with one hand.

And while she has given up hope that this will change, students at her school staged a show of solidarity with her partner. Now Peralta is not only able to catch a ball, but can carry his own food, wear glasses and other tasks that require the use of two hands.

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“I started happier, more excited (…) I wanted to do a lot of things with my right hand. Now I can do more,” Peralta said in an interview with international media, where he talked about what he can do with his new prosthesis.

Change for your life

of a young man Tennessee He made sure to hide his right hand for some time in his life because he was a minor, all his classmates would ask why he didn’t wave and some would actually make fun of him.

Your computer teacher Jeff Wilkins, He observed these behaviors in a student who used the mouse to the left of the keyboard. After finding this out, the teacher decided to help the student by motivating his classmates to make a prosthesis. However, he did it secretly with three people.

Peralta insisted that he never had prosthetic tests done because he felt comfortable with his left hand. After the teacher’s idea, they bought printing equipment 3D on Amazon and discovered a prosthetic hand model in a design program.

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An act of solidarity

“I didn’t want to get their hopes up, I’d rather overpromise and overdeliver than overpromise and underdeliver on something like this,” Wilkins said. For this prosthesis, they used polylactic acid, a plastic filament material common in 3D printing that is also used to make electronic devices, as the main tissue of the hand.

They also used thermoplastic polyurethane, a flexible plastic commonly found in phone and laptop cases, to allow the fingers to flex and bend objects. They also used fishing line and velcro so Sergio could easily attach his hand to the forearm.

After everything was prepared, the students used it LuizBot 3D printer from school to create a prototype. With the action of reflexes, Wilkins threw the ball to Sergio, who managed to catch it after several attempts.

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And now, after a month of use, Sergio notes that he only removes his hand to sleep, but he uses it throughout the day for various activities such as picking up cups, carrying plates of food, and his next step is learning. Write with this prosthesis.

Although the young people at the school had no knowledge of engineering, they were also motivated to study this project at university and hoped to work with other impactful products that can help people in their daily lives.