3D printing has been used by a team of innovators called the Not Impossible group to create a prosthetic arm for children who have been victims of violent conflicts.
American Mick Ebeling decided to put the "dream team" together after reading a magazine article about Daniel Omar, a 14-year-old boy in Sudan who lost his arms during a dirty bomb explosion while taking care of his goats, stripping him of his ability to survive in a war-consumed area, according to CBC News.
Now, Daniel has the ability to take care of himself with his new arm, which was created through Project Daniel and is made of plastic, cables, screws, and bolts. The arm can be created in just a few hours, and is worth $100. Before Ebeling and his team arrived in November 2013 to provide the arm, no one in the area had ever used 3D printing technology.
Daniel is printing arms to provide limbs for over 50,000 amputees in Sudan, CBC News reported. The goal of Not Impossible is to tell stories of innovation that will inspire people to get involved in helping those with physical issues.
"The question we ask is 'Who is your Daniel?'" Ebeling, co-founder of the group, said in an interview. "What is the story you read, who is the person you know in your life?"
Ebeling previously developed a device for L.A. graffiti artist Tempt One, who suffers from Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS), which took away his ability to use his limbs and motor functions and prevented him from making art. The device, called the Eyewriter, hooks up to a pair of glasses, tracks a user's eye movements with a webcam, and translates the movements into objects on a screen.
Ebeling and his team worked on the arm for Daniel at a refugee camp in Yida, located in South Sudan. The team was able to create the arm despite problems with heat and bugs jamming the device at night. The process started with printing and assembling the parts, which was followed by molding a special piece of plastic to fit the person's limb and attach to the moving parts. The arm also includes cables fixed in each digit. The cables are drawn by the elbow's movements, enabling them to open and close the hand, CBC News reported.
Not Impossible is looking to build 3D prosthetic labs in Sierra Leone, Vietnam and Nicaragua to help people the same way they helped Daniel. The group is also looking to inspire others to start their own causes and innovations, having the motto "Help one, help many." One way the group looks to accomplish such inspiration is through Not Impossible Now, a website that serves as a center for innovators. Several projects have been brought to the website, such as an exoskeleton designed to help a girl in Mexico walk again, and another designed to help deaf people hear music.
Not Impossible aims to build its legacy on thousands of innovations from people inspired by stories like Daniel's, CBC News reported.
"That would be the true measure of success," Ebeling said.
