I am back at work thanks to £47,000 bionic hand
A BRITISH engineer has been fitted with a fully functioning bionic hand after losing his own in a horrific jet-ski accident.
Chris Taylor is the first person in the UK to try the new £47,000 device which gives him full use of an artificial thumb and fingers.
The 58-year-old can now not only perform simple domestic tasks like doing up a button but can also carry out the complex wiring work involved in his job.
Mr Taylor lost his right hand when it became entangled with a rope when he fell off a jet-ski off Torquay in 2009. He wore a rudimentary NHS prosthetic before finding out about the new bionic hand, which he controls via electrodes that sense movement in the muscles of his arm.
Mr Taylor, a married father of three from Ivybridge, Devon, used insurance money to pay for the German device, fitted by the private Dorset Orthopaedic Clinic.
He said: “It will make a huge difference to my life. Now I have got something on the end of my arm that actually works. It obviously isn’t quite as good as a normal hand but it is much better than what I had. ”
The device, named the Michelangelo Hand after the artist’s painting of the fingers of God and Adam touching, has to be charged every evening for four hours.