by Rick Bradford | We Praise the Lord for the technology, and design, the energy, the travel, the team, and the prayers of those who brought this idea to actuality. There is now so much hope for this young man that one day he will be able to feed himself again.
If you remember this young man Sunday who had a very unfortunate situation happen to him over a year ago. Being electrocuted yet surviving. Losing both his arms, and experiencing great damage to his right leg. There was a time that all he could do was lay in bed for many, many months, not able to shoo a fly off of himself. Two months ago he was able to take his foot brace off, and try and walk around with some constant pain, yet determined to earn the soccer ball I gave him for being able to get up and kick it without falling.
With the help of one volunteer, Brittany, (who is a sports therapist from Alberta, Canada) he has some freedom on his ankle to actually move his toes and ankle up and down. Also he is now able to begin to bend his knee. She will continue to meet with him over the next few days that she is here to help the scar tissue ease and give him some freedom to move his leg without pain. (I have such a new appreciation for Sports therapist). But this isn’t all…while going through the therapy sessions, another volunteer, Dr. Mary Dyck, was able to represent a team from Alberta, Canada with a new device, a printed prosthetic arm.
Unfortunately during the flight travel, the one holding bracket broke and we had to figure out a way to support it. We were able to learn that there was a weak point in the design and it can be altered and redesigned for more strength. So comes the idea to fabricate and shape a metal part to give strength to the holding bracket. (Unfortunately it adds much weight to the arm)
Again we know that this is a proto type and is meant to be changed.
The good news, is that there is much HOPE…
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We attached the arm onto Sunday and practiced with him on using it.
We were able to get a tooth brush and with the special designed hand he was able to hold the tooth brush and move his head to brush his teeth. The final test of the day was whether he could reach for a pop bottle and hold it to his mouth? Was the weight of the arm and the bottle going to be too much for the device?
Now I know the bottle was empty, but here we have it…..for the first time in over a year, Sunday was able to bring a “mineral” bottle to his mouth again.
We were so happy for the first time results….
We Praise the Lord for the technology, and design, the energy, the travel, the team, and the prayers of those who brought this idea to actuality. There is now so much hope for this young man that one day he will be able to feed himself again.
We know that this is a “proto” type and there is yet much more to do…Yet there is so much “real” hope again.
I want to thank everyone who believed in this dream…
I want to thank God for the team that continues to look at the other ways that can help.
I really want to thank Dr. Mary and Brittany for taking the 3 weeks to come and be here to see it through. I know that they will go back to Canada and work stage 2….but this is so much more than we ever thought could be done…Thank you Jesus…for your loving and caring people.
Join us in praying that one day Sunday will have the prosthetic arms he needs to be independent again.
