Yahoo – AFP,
Amy Fallon, 2 June 2015
 |
Ugandan
schoolboy Jesse Ayebazibwe, 9, sits next to his 3D-printed artificial
limb at
the Comprehensive Rehabilitation Services Uganda in Wakiso on April 24,
2015
(AFP Photo/Isaac Kasamani)
|
Kisubi
(Uganda) (AFP) - Doctors amputated Ugandan schoolboy Jesse Ayebazibwe's right
leg when he was hit by a truck while walking home from school three years ago.
Afterwards
he was given crutches, but that was all, and so he hobbled about. "I liked
playing like a normal kid before the accident," the nine-year-old said.
Now an
infrared scanner, a laptop and a pair of 3D printers are changing everything
for Jesse and others like him, offering him the chance of a near-normal life.
 |
An infrared
scanner, a laptop and a pair
of 3D printers are changing everything
for people
with amputations, offering them
the chance of a near-normal life in Uganda
(AFP
Photo/Isaac Kasamani)
|
"The
process is quite short, that's the beauty of the 3D printers," said Moses
Kaweesa, an orthopaedic technologist at Comprehensive Rehabilitation Services
(CoRSU) in Uganda which, together with Canada's University of Toronto and the
charity Christian Blind Mission, is making the prostheses.
"Jesse
was here yesterday, today he's being fitted," said Kaweesa, 34.
In the
past, the all-important plaster cast sockets that connect prosthetic limbs to a
person's hip took about a week to make, and were often so uncomfortable people
ended up not wearing them.
Plastic
printed ones can be made in a day and are a closer, more comfortable fit.
The
scanner, laptop and printer cost around $12,000 (10,600 euros), with the
materials costing just $3 (2.65 euros).
Ayebazibwe
got his first, old-style prosthesis last year but is now part of a trial that
could lead to the 3D technology changing lives across the country.
Life-changing technology
The
technology is only available to a few, however, and treatment for disability in
Uganda in general remains woeful.
"There's
no support from the government for disabled people," said Kaweesa.
"We have a disability department and a minister for disabled people, but
they don't do anything."
There are
just 12 trained prosthetic technicians for over 250,000 children who have lost
limbs, often due to fires or congenital diseases.
The 3D
technology is portable and allows technicians to work on multiple patients at a
time, increasing the reach of their life-changing intervention.
 |
Plastic 3-D
printed prosthetic limbs can
be made in a day and are a closer,
more
comfortable fit then the previous
plaster cast models (AFP Photo/Isaac
Kasamani)
|
"You
can travel with your laptop and scanner," said Kaweesa, adding that the
technology could be of great use in northern Uganda, a part of the country
where many people lost limbs during decades of war between the government and
Lord's Resistance Army rebels, who specialised in chopping off limbs.
After
receiving his first 3D socket Ayebazibwe was overjoyed. "I felt good, like
my normal leg," he said. "I can do anything now -- run and play
football."
The boy's
53-year old grandmother, Florence Akoth, looks after him, even carrying him the
two kilometres (miles) to school after his leg was crushed and his life
shattered. She too is thrilled.
"Now
he's liked at school, plays, does work, collects firewood and water," said
Akoth, who struggles to make ends meet as a poorly-paid domestic worker caring
for five children.
Sitting on
a bench outside the CoRSU fitting room were three young children and their
parents.
"This
is her first time walking on two legs," said Kaweesa, pointing at a timid
young girl who lost both her legs in a fire.
"Because
they've seen other kids walking, playing, they realise they've been missing
that," he said "Once you fit them they start walking and even
running."
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