Boy Receives 3D Printed Card Playing Prosthetic from e-NABLE

The team at e-NABLE have been working hard to help many people, mostly children, who require prosthetic devices. They’ve been custom making a multitude of prosthetics on a volunteer basis to allow people to do many things we take for granted. e-NABLE have created several models of 3D printed hands that have allow children to play games, throw and catch balls, pick up objects and more. Some of these children were just in need of replacements, lower-cost solutions or very specific solutions that allowed them the joys of using both hands.

The hands and arms they’ve created are all robotic, using mostly 3D printed parts that the volunteers crate for them after they receive the patients measurements, and in most cases the 3D printed solutions are working better than traditional prosthetic devices which often cost tens of thousands of dollars to receive.

Nancy messaged the team about her son Keegan, one of the users of their printed prosthetic hands which has enabled him the use of both hands to live a more involving life. However, the team are still making adjustments to the prosthetic and have even created a special card-playing hand for him so that he can play games like Uno, Go Fish and more with his friends. Before the adjustments, he had to keep his cards in a pile on the floor, sifting through them with one hand on each go, which was obviously frustrating for him. So his mother sent a request back to the team at e-NABLE.

“I was wondering if anyone has come up with a design so that the kids could hold cards,” asked Nancy to the volunteers of e-NABLE late last week. “Keegen always has a difficult time playing Uno, Go Fish and more because he can’t see all of his cards at once. He keeps them in a pile and has to look through it every turn. It would be really cool and functional.”

Shortly after she contacted them, the team responded.

“I would be glad to design something,” responded e-NABLE member Bob Roth. “This is the type of project that I want to help with. You could get him one of those circular card holders two and a half inches in diameter. you can fasten it to his socket and he could hold his cards in his hand. I’ve seen them in stores. you could fasten it with a Velcro strap”

A bit of hot glue, some velcro and a few hours later, Keegan can now play his favourite card games with his friends and family. It might not sound like a big change, but it’s great to see how quickly 3D printed prosthetics can be adapted to their users needs thanks to the way it was designed. Need longer fingers to operate a certain device, print longer fingers, print a baseball mitt hand, a analogue stick and controller grip hand, change the overall size as the child grows older, and all at a significantly reduced cost.

With over 1000 members now part of the e-NABLE group, this is just the start of something truly awesome.

Thank you 3DPrint for providing us with this information.

Images courtesy of 3DPrint and e-NABLE.