Plymouth Whitemarsh students make prosthetic hand for 8-year-old girl

Students in Chris Brunner's product design class have created cellphone cases and model-rocket parts on Plymouth Whitemarsh High School's 3-D printers. But a concerned dad made a special request.

Dan Williamson asked for a prosthetic hand for his 8-year-old daughter, Olivia.

The Plymouth Elementary School student, born without fingers on her left hand, saw prostheses being built with the help of 3D printers on the Internet. Olivia thought they were cool. Her father was reluctant.

"I never wanted her to think that she needed anything," said Dan Williamson, 43, of Plymouth Meeting. "People say she's overcome. No, it's nature. She learns to swing a bat the way she needs to, not the way I need to."

Williamson eventually gave in. He e-mailed Brunner last spring, starting a project that has since involved 11 students in two classes, a $45,000 3D printer, and collaboration with a South Philadelphia lab.

The result so far is two versions of a hand, each made of 17 pieces of plastic, 14 stainless screws, five nylon cords, and Velcro straps.

Olivia tried on a revised version for the first time Wednesday. She gave it a thumbs up. Literally. Then she grabbed a cellphone with her new hand and took a selfie.

"I think this will help me to have a little more grip," Olivia said, referring to the reins she holds while riding horses on her aunt's farm.

The hand project is part of a movement of 3-D do-it-yourself hand prostheses that started three years ago when a South African carpenter, who had lost the fingers on his right hand in an accident, partnered with an American special effects artist. The two created what they called a Robohand and eventually used a 3-D printer to produce it. They shared the instructions on the Internet.

Months later, Jorge M. Zuniga, an assistant professor of exercise science at Creighton University in Nebraska, led a team to create their own version - the Cyborg Beast. Their directions are also on the Web, posted on sites that include the National Institutes of Health's 3-D Print Exchange.

Brunner and his students used the Cyborg Beast as a reference to create Olivia's custom-made hand. Brunner's product design and engineering classes measured Olivia's arm and custom-designed a model on a computer, which converted the design into code that the 3-D printer followed. The printer then created the hand's plastic pieces according to the code.

The pieces are attached with screws, and the fingers move with the help of nylon cords.

Zuniga's team at Creighton is studying 12 children who have been using the Cyborg Beast for five months. Data indicate that 75 percent of the children use the hand one to two hours a day (32 percent for fun; 29 percent at home; 19 percent to play; 13 percent at school; and 7 percent for sports), Zuniga said.

These versions cost less than $100. Traditional prosthetics can cost up to $100,000, Zuniga said.

But Chris Lake of the American Academy of Orthotists and Prosthetists argues that a simple comparison can't be made.

It doesn't consider the sophisticated (and expensive) equipment, licensing and accreditation requirements, professional education and training, research, and advanced materials used in creating traditional prosthetics during a clinical relationship with a patient, said Lake, immediate past president of the academy's Upper Limb Prosthetic Society.

All of those factors help to safely fit a patient with the right prosthesis, Lake said.

But he is excited about the movement to use 3-D printers, which he hopes will result in more students choosing careers in the field.

On Wednesday, Olivia slipped her hand into a black prosthetic hand with neon green thread and closed the fingers on the first try.

"OMG, Olivia, it worked perfectly," said Olivia's mother, Amber.

Dan Williamson joked with his daughter.

"Think of how many chores you can do now," he said.

The family, including brothers Alex, 11, and Cian, 6, was surrounded by some of the students who had worked on the two phases of development: one month in June for the first model, and several weeks during the summer for the black and green hand Olivia tried out Wednesday.

The students worked with NextFab studio, a South Philadelphia lab that offers digital design and fabrication services.

"The things you use in high school, sometimes they won't amount to anything. But this is really cool, to see her trying it on and closing her hand for the first time," said Patrick Gaffney, 17, a senior at Plymouth Whitemarsh.

Olivia took the hand home with her and will keep a journal to record how she uses it and what works and doesn't.

The project will be incorporated in the high school curriculum, with students making adjustments as Olivia grows up, said Sergio Anaya, curriculum supervisor with the Colonial School District.

Brunner is looking forward to it.

"Olivia will be here for nine more years," Brunner said. "I want her to have something she can work with and be proud of."

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