Case history

Lindsay Block has never known what it feels like to lose a hand. She was born missing the lower part of her left arm as the result of a birth defect.

“I never really knew any different,” said Block. “In many ways, it has been a blessing as through my work in the industry, I have learned that the hardest part for amputees is learning to overcome the loss of something you once had. For me, that wasn’t an issue I had to deal with.”

She is well qualified to make such an observation. In 2004, Block joined the Limbs for Life Foundation as a marketing and PR director. Limbs for Life is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to providing prosthetic care for individuals who cannot otherwise afford it and raising awareness of the challenges facing amputees.

Block is an experienced user of prosthetic products. “I’ve had a prosthesis since I was six months old,” she said. “I was trained from a very early age, and learned to put on my arm the same way other kids learn to put on their shoes.”

Up to the age of five, she wore a body-powered device that was strapped around her good arm with the gripping function operated by extending and retracting her arm. Then the first myoelectric hands appeared on the market and Block was fortunate to be part of the first trials for these revolutionary devices, which she has been using ever since.

Recent advances made in cosmesis, or coverings, for prosthetic and robotic hands were a welcome development.

“Within the last couple of years, the new cosmetic gloves that have now appeared are really amazing,” she said. “I’ve really enjoyed being able to use the new kinds of gloves that help match my prosthesis to my right hand.”

But the myoelectric hands Block has been using are not without their limitations and she had recently started wearing a passive prosthetic hand from time to time to avoid having to wear the bulky and heavy myoelectric prosthesis.

Through her childhood and teen years, Block was provided her prostheses by Shriners Hospital, but has been with in contact with Scott Sabolich Prosthetics & Research her whole life, visiting the clinic when any repairs were required. She established a firm bond with the clinic and has been attending more regularly since she turned 18.

“They’re like family to me,” she said. “I even worked there for a while as an intern after college, before starting with Limbs for Life.”

It was through her job with Limbs for Life and her close connection with Scott Sabolich that Block became one of the first patients to be fitted with the i-LIMB Hand. She was attending a fitting of one of the recipients of her program at Scott Sabolich and her eager participation in a discussion about new prosthetic technologies led to her eventual fitting with the new hand from Touch Bionics. She noticed an immediate difference.

“My previous myoelectric hand never really moved or looked like a real hand,” she said. “When I’m wearing the i-LIMB Hand, I’m pretty sure that someone who doesn’t know me wouldn’t even guess that it wasn’t my own hand.”

Beyond the hand’s natural appearance, she is also in awe of its advanced grip features.

“It’s cool how it can adjust to whatever it is grabbing on to. With my previous hand, I would often have to move my entire arm to try and grab on to an object of a certain shape, and you often had to really think about the kind of shape that you are trying to hold, was it round or too flat or too wide, and so on. With this new hand, you don’t have to strategize so much about what you do with it because you realize it’s not limited and will adjust depending on what it’s gripping on to.”

A wide selection of print and web quality images are downloadable from the Patient Picture Gallery.

Read more i-LIMB hand success stories