Bionic arm women begins feeling sensation in lost limb
September 11th, 2008 - 1:47 pm ICT by ANI - Send to a friend:London, Sept 11 (ANI): A woman marine, who was given a “bionic arm” controlled by thought, has got an odd side-effect of her surgeryshe can feel hot and cold sensations in her lost limb.
Claudia Mitchell, who has been nicknamed the Bionic Woman, lost her arm in a 2004 motorcycle accident.
She volunteered to be fitted with the limb in 2006 after she got frustrated with a standard prosthetic, and thus became the first woman to receive a bionic arm, fitted with a pioneering surgical process called ”targeted reinnervation”.
So, the surgeons took nerves from her shoulder and embedded them under muscle in her chest, enabling her to control her hands movement by thought via tiny electrical impulses.
However, after 4 months of her operation, she ”felt” hot water on her lost hand when it hit her chest while in the shower,
In fact, touching her chest, where the nerves have been transplanted, or applying heat and cold to it, gave her the sensation of pressure, warmth or coolness in her missing hand.
However, according to doctors at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, which has developed the new procedure, the sensations are because they moved sensory as well as motor nerves from her shoulder to chest.
“We have rewired herm. We purposely directed her hand sensation nerves on to some chest skin, and it worked, the Telegraph quoted Dr Todd Kuiken of the Institute, as saying.
One of her colleagues, Paul Marasco, said that Mitchell experienced the same sensations when the same part of her chest was touched.
“She is like clockwork. Her sensations are very well established, he told ABC News.
The development has given hope of new improvements in prosthetics. (ANI)
Related Stories
- Bionic arm gives hope to amputated soldiers - November 27, 2007
- Brain keeps in touch with hand feeling even 35 years after limb loss - October 10, 2008
- Bionic hand bags UKs top engineering prize - June 10, 2008
- Premature babies impervious to heat, cold later in life - December 27, 2008
- Indian origin neurologist recommends virtual massage for pain relief among amputees - March 20, 2008
- Heres why we feel cold - December 19, 2007
- Disabled Briton gets new limb after a pint at local pub! - September 29, 2008
- Preemies develop altered sensory responses later in life - December 23, 2008
- The Beckhams are huge fans of Bionic Woman - February 7, 2008
- Meet the dolphin thats the worlds first bionic sea creature - May 5, 2008
- How to distinguish between holiday heartburn and heart attack - November 23, 2008
- Sensory treatment more beneficial for autistic children - April 26, 2008
- Mercedes bionic car at New York’s Museum of Modern Art - March 5, 2008
- Now, a computer that can read your mind - June 3, 2008
- Swedish scientists make body-swapping a virtual reality - December 3, 2008
- National
- 4 months
- abc news
- bionic arm
- bionic woman
- coolness
- dr todd
- first woman
- hot water
- marasco
- motor nerves
- motorcycle accident
- odd side
- prosthetic
- rehabilitation institute of chicago
- sensation
- sensations
- sept 11
- tiny electrical impulses
- todd kuiken
- warmth
Posted in National, |

