Jim Ashworth-Beaumont is an orthotist at the Royal National Orthopaedic hospital in London. He builds and fits prosthetic limbs and cares for patients using the devices, as he has since the 1990s. In a cruel twist of fate, he was riding his bicycle and was struck by a truck in 2020. The truck wheels sliced through his body and ripped his right arm off. Ashworth-Beaumont spent six weeks in a medically-induced coma as doctors saved his life by repairing his lungs and liver. The loss of an arm was a lower priority at the time. However, in another twist of fate, Ashworth-Beaumont's surgeon, Edmund Fitzgerald O’Connor, is a plastic surgeon who had been on the lookout for a patient to try a new type of prosthetic limb.
Osseointegration is the process of implanting a titanium rod into an amputee's stump that can be attached to a prosthetic. The process is commonly used to implant teeth, and we have seen it used in animals. It has been used in people, but now bionics has progressed to allow osseointegration to be combined with electronic sensors to control a limb's movements with the patient's brain. Ashworth-Beaumont received his implant last October. Read his story at The Guardian. -via Damn Interesting