British serviceman, Corporal Andrew Garthwaite has come to Austria to get a mind-controlled bionic arm. The soldier who lost his arm in Afghanistan in September 2010 underwent surgery for the fitting of the hi-tech prosthesis in the AKH university hospital in Vienna yesterday.
The 24-year-old has lived without one of his arms for more than a year now since a rocket propelled grenade badly injured him and killed one of his fellow soldiers in Helmand, Afghanistan. The soldier was using one of the most modern bionic arms, which functioned simply by flexing muscles in his back, when he was approached by doctors in Austria. Andrew will now be able to control his new arm using only his mind.
“I’m really excited at going over. A little bit nervous but I think the outcome is going to be great,” Andrew told the BBC prior to his trip to Vienna.
The first round of surgery which took place this week lasted six hours and involved the complete rewiring of the nerves in Andrew’s shoulder joint. The nerves which the 24-year-old would normally use to make his arm and hand function are now rewired to his chest. The eventual aim of Professor Oskar Aszmann and his team is to create a bionic arm prosthesis that functions through the power of thought.
“The prosthesis could be working in around a year with a lot of training,” explained Professor Oskar Aszmann. After the work is complete, Corporal Garthwaite will once again be able to feel his hand and will learn to control his new arm, instinctively knowing what the various nerves control.
The patient, who now plans to leave the army and will marry his girlfriend on 15 April, is positive about his new future. “I still have my down days and I still have flashbacks and memories, which will never leave us, but you just learn to crack on. With this new target I have got to hit now, it is keeping my mind occupied. You just want to look into the future and just think what’s actually going to happen, how much it’s going to benefit me,” he told the BBC.
Viennese surgeon Oskar Aszmann has carried out such revolutionary surgeries in the past such as providing a bionic hand for a patient in 2011, also controlled by the man’s mind. The 24-year-old’s hand had been mangled in a motorbike accident and as such he had his dysfunctional hand completely removed and replaced with the prosthesis. The surgery was then only the second such elective amputation to be carried out worldwide.
Rebecca Musgrave
http://austriantimes.at, 27/1/2012