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This little girl has just received a new hand - in her favourite colours.

A little girl from Scotland who was born with no fingers on her left hand has become the first child in the UK to have a prosthetic hand made using a 3D printer.

When five year old Hayley Fraser began to feel self-conscious about her lack of fingers and struggled to stay on her scooter, Hayley’s parents reached out to American not-for profit organisation E-nable, a group of volunteer engineers, artists and academics who make affordable synthetic limbs for kids around the world.

 Superhero Hayley rescues an injured Blue Fairy

Hayley’s new 3D printed hand, which was based on a plaster cast of her arm taken by her parents, was made by Professor Frankie Flood at the University of Wisconson for the relatively tiny sum of $57AUD.

Hayley chose the colours of her new hand (pink and purple), but other kids who have received new printed limbs have chosen flashing lights, stars, claws and superhero stylings (Iron Man and Wolverine hands are very popular). E-nable has made over 40 kid-friendly limbs proudly worn by kids across the globe since is was founded a year ago by US prop designer Ivan Owen and South African carpenter Richard van As (who had lost his own fingers working with a saw).

Hayley can now safely ride her scooter

 

Owen and van As were strangers before they came together to make a prosthetic for a little boy in South Africa and then gave the plans away for free. The plans are now being used across the world, including by a high school that used their school’s 3D printer to make a new limb for a man who lost part of his hand in a woodchipper accident.

 

 

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Top Comments

Donna Murphy 10 years ago

That is amazing!!!


fifi-lulu 10 years ago

Bloomin' marvellous!