Maxence grabs a tennis ball with his new 3D-printed hand in Cessieu on Monday.
Lyon - The device, which is worn like a glove and attatches with Velcro, cost less than ?50 to produce and can easily be replaced with a larger model as the boy grows up.
Published: Tue 18 Aug 2015, 12:00 AM
Updated: Tue 18 Aug 2015, 6:52 PM
Maxence was born without a right hand, but on Monday the six-year-old French boy got one through an effort highlighting the growing use of 3D printing technology to make prostheses.
"He is going to have a superhero hand the colour of his choice, that he can take off when he wishes," said his mother Virginie. "It will be fun for him on the school yard with his friends."
The prosthesis comes through an American foundation called e-NABLE, which since 2013 has been connecting owners of 3D printers with families of children missing fingers or hands.
More than 1,500 prostheses have already been provided through the foundation, and the hand for Maxence was the group's first in France.
The device, which is worn like a glove and attatches with Velcro, cost less than ?50 to produce and can easily be replaced with a larger model as the boy grows up.
It is designed for children who, like Maxence, have a wrist and a palm. The artificial hand grasps objects when the user bends his or her wrist, and is attached without surgery. The prothesis does not allow for more precise activities like tying shoes, but does allow users to do things like riding on swings or a scooter that are difficult to do without fingers.
Maxence is among the roughly 100 children born each year in France with one or more malformed limbs. His condition is a result of agenesia - the failure of a limb to develop while a child is in the womb.
For the moment protheses like Maxence's have neither been tested nor approved by France's health authorities.
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