Young girl gets ‘magic arms’
14 August 2012
Emma’s story shows how 3D printing is helping to solve some of the world’s greatest challenges.
Emma Lavelle was born with a condition called arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC), which means she cannot move her arms. So researchers at a Delaware hospital 3D printed a durable custom device with the tiny, lightweight custom parts she needed. Emma calls them her ‘magic arms.’
From the moment Megan Lavelle saw the device, she knew it would change her daughter’s life. It was at a Philadelphia conference for AMC families that Lavelle learned about the Wilmington Robotic Exoskeleton (WREX), an assistive device made of hinged metal bars and resistance bands. It enables kids with underdeveloped arms to play, feed themselves and hug.
AMC is a non-progressive condition that causes stiff joints and very underdeveloped muscles. Emma was born with her legs folded up by her ears and her shoulders turned in. “She could only move her thumb,” says Megan Lavelle. Doctors immediately performed surgery and casted Emma’s legs. The baby girl went home with parents determined to provide the best care.
Medical experts warned that AMC would prevent Emma from ever experiencing any sort of normality. She developed more slowly than an average child and spent much of her first two years in casts or undergoing surgery. Unable to see Emma play and interact with her environment in the ways her older daughter had, Lavelle privately wondered whether Emma’s cognitive ability would be hampered as well.
But Emma progressed, slowly and steadily. As she grew and became able to move about with the help of a walker, it became clear that her mind was sharp and her determination on par with her mother. At two years old, she still couldn’t lift her arms, and the little girl wanted more. “She would get really frustrated when she couldn’t play with things like blocks,” Lavelle says.
Then came the WREX, demonstrated at the conference by an 8-year-old AMC patient lifting his arms and moving them in all directions. Lavelle met the presenters, Tariq Rahman, Ph.D, Head of paediatric engineering and research, and Whitney Sample, Research Designer, both from Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware. Rahman and Sample had worked for years to make the device progressively smaller, serving younger and younger patients. Attached to a wheelchair, the WREX worked for kids as young as six. But Emma was two, small for her age, and free to walk.
In Sample’s tool-and-toy filled workshop, the team strapped Emma’s arms into a small but awkward trial WREX attached to a stationary support. “She just started throwing her hands around and playing,” Sample says. Megan brought Emma candy and toys and watched her lift her arms toward her mouth for the first time.
For Emma to wear the WREX outside the workshop, Rahman and Sample needed to scale it down in size and weight. The parts would be too small and detailed for the workshop’s CNC system to fabricate. But near Sample’s desk was a Stratasys 3D Printer, which can build complex objects automatically from computer designs. Sample often used it to work out ideas with physical models, so he 3D printed a prototype WREX in ABS plastic. The difference in weight allowed Sample to attach the Emma-sized WREX to a little plastic vest.
The 3D-printed WREX turned out to be durable enough for everyday use. Emma wears it at home, at preschool, and during occupational therapy. And the design flexibility of 3D printing lets Sample continually improve upon the device, working out ideas in CAD and building them the same day.
Fifteen children now use custom 3D-printed WREX devices. For these patients, Rahman explains, the benefits may extend beyond the obvious. Prolonged disuse of the arms can sometimes condition children to limited development, affecting cognitive and emotional growth. Doctors and therapists are now watching Emma closely for the benefits of earlier arm use.
Emma quickly grew to love the abilities that WREX unlocked in her. “When she started to express herself, we would go upstairs [to Sample’s workshop] and we would say, ‘Emma, you know we’re going to put the WREX on.’ And she called them her magic arms,” Lavelle says.
The girl’s approval is a fitting reward for her determined mother and the dedicated researchers. Sample says: “To be a part of that little special moment for someone else, can’t help but tug at your heart strings.”
Scott Crump, Chairman and CEO of Stratasys, added: “Some of our world’s greatest ideas are being 3D-printed. Engineers want their technical work to connect to a greater good, and 3D printing is helping them bring their ideas to fruition to improve lives and the world around us. As more people become aware of the possibilities of 3D printing, its impact outside of traditional manufacturing and design realms will continue to grow.”
3D-printing market consultancy Wohlers Associates affirms this idea in its Wohlers Report 2012, noting: ‘As applications grow, the users of the technology grow as well. It seems that almost any problem involving three-dimensional objects can be solved faster and better with the use of additive manufacturing technology.”
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