evan's hand: completed

Today my student, Alissa Fedor, assisted me in finishing the velcro straps on Evan's gauntlet and she finished off the cords as well. Evan's hand is finished and it is on it's way to him. He wanted a black and orange hand so we made it happen. Evan suffered the loss of his fingers in a tragic accident at the beginning of this year. 

His mother Hailey wrote to me and said the following... "My son is REALLY into sports. He loved hockey, baseball, and wrestling which I think may be a struggle for him now, but with your help, maybe he will be able to grip something with the use of your hand."

This particular story really touched my heart as I have a nine year old son who is really interested in various sports as well. I know how devastated my son, Noah, would be if he were not able to play sports, so I hope this hand allows Evan even just a bit of functionality in some of his favorite activities. I tried to build this hand so that it could withstand a bit more abuse than the other hands that I have made. The printing infill is heavier and as noted in earlier posts, the "pivot" areas are reinforced with metal bushings and such. Building a robust printed hand has prompted more ideas for our research. Alissa and I are interested in creating an aluminum hand in the future that we can test for impacts and high contact use. Evan has us thinking about how a boy his age should be able to put a mechanical hand through it's paces. Thanks so much, Evan for inspiring us! 

On April 25th Evan went to Shriner's in Minnesota to get fitted for a "hook" type contraction. I haven't heard back from Hailey about how the fitting went, but soon he will have a choice between the hook and a new orange and black mechanical hand.

Hope you like the new hand, Evan. Alissa and I hope that this gives you some options as to what you can do and wear.