Liam Porter, a 7-year-old from Augusta, Georgia, got a pretty cool new prosthetic arm thanks to 3D printing – one that other kids might be envious of.
It’s a Star Wars inspired Stormtrooper arm.
Porter, who was born without part of his left arm, had a traditional prosthetic before, but it wasn’t necessarily functional.
“It didn’t really move,” his mom Ryan told the The Augusta Chronicle said. “So to a little kid, it was nothing but dead weight. He did a lot without it.”
John Peterson created the arm for Porter with the help of e-NABLE, an online community of people who work together to create prosthetics for those in need using 3D printers. The new arm that Porter got was the result of a collaboration between a prop maker in Washington and a carpenter in South Africa, according to People.
Designs created from plastic in an open source process keeps the price of prosthetics low. Porter’s arm only cost $300 (compared to a typical $9,000 prosthetic) and took about three months to make, Peterson said.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The look on Porter’s face is just priceless. Hopefully his new arm will draw attention for how cool and unique it is (as opposed to him getting attention simply due to his disability).
