02 October 2011

Back to Normal ~ Amputee Gets iWalk Prosthetic

Deena Centrofanti from WJBK Detroit reports Michigan Amputee Gets Fitted with iWalk Bionic Limb...
"In 1999, a Hartland Township firefighter fell and broke his leg in a way that doctors couldn't fix it. [...] "I got the amputation in July of 2003 and started to get my life back little by little," said Dave Dunville. [... He's now] getting fitted with what's being called a bionic prosthesis, the iWalk [created by MIT Media Lab Professor Hugh Herr and colleagues at their spinoff company...] A typical prosthesis works with a stiff system of springs, which means just walking can be exhausting and next to impossible, but robotics in the iWalk act like tendons and muscles in your foot and ankle. [...] At his final fitting, Dunville was overwhelmed as the foot was powered up with a smart phone. "The feeling was, it was 12 years ago," he said. It's modern day science and technology that is taking him back in time. "I'm back to normal. I'm back to whole. When it's all said and done, I'm going to feel like I have a leg again," Dunville said."

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