Gavin's Body Powered Helper Arm!

Today was an exciting day! One we have been awaiting for several weeks...
Look what Gavin got today!

Its his new body powered prosthetic arm! He designed it himself by picking out the fabric (Can you tell?)

The strap goes over his right shoulder and when he makes a reaching motion or shrugs his shoulders, the hand closes! When he pulls back, the hand opens.

We debated a lot about what kind of prosthetic to get for him but we decided on this one because it is more functional than a passive and not nearly as heavy as a myoeletric. Since he's not used to wearing any sort of prosthesis, we needed something lighter to get him used to wearing something again.

He did really well with it and was already learning that when he stretches out his arm, the hand closes and he can grasp small objects. It will definitely take a lot of practice to fine tune it.

Lisa, his occupational therapist, helped him use his new hand to grip the scooter.


And he had no problem pushing the shopping cart down the hall at lightening speed! (Before he declared, "No like it mommy!" and pulled it off...)


I'm SO incredibly proud of our little guy. I'll be sure to keep you posted with how he is doing with it. For now, Lisa asked us to try to get him to wear it for about half an hour a day and work up to longer periods. She also gave us a list of activities to help him learn to use it.

He will also be bringing it to daycare tomorrow so I will need to give them a little tutorial but they are excited about getting involved.