- Boy from Long Island was born without lower left arm
- Other children have had similar arms but he is the youngest
- The 3D printed Hero Arm allows the user to have have realistic arm and finger movements
A five-year-old boy in the US has become the youngest person to receive a bionic hero arm – designed in the colors of his hero, Iron Man.
Jordan Marotta from Long Island has been fitted with the state of the art arm having been born without a left hand.
The Hero Arm is an advanced, lightweight, 3D printed bionic arm, made by Open Bionics. It comes with six different grips to help users to undertake everyday tasks with ease. The wrist can also be rotated through 180 degrees making it easy to do a wide range of tasks.
It is designed to attach and detach seamlessly from his existing limb and uses electrodes and sensors to detect muscle activity, which means the user can have natural arm and finger movements. Each arm is made bespoke to the person and takes about a month to create. It runs on a rechargeable battery, which can run for about 14 hours on one charge.
Jordan’s mother, Ashley, told the New York Post that he had excitedly used his Hero Arm to hail a taxi in Manhattan after he had been fitted with it at Open Bionics’ offices nearby.
Older children have been fitted with Hero Arms, but Jordan was considered ready due to his physical development and emotional maturity.
