Case history

Ross Stack lost his right hand in a meat-grinder accident when he was only 15 years old, while working as a kitchen helper in a Chinese restaurant. So it came as something of a surprise to find that almost 30 years later, workers’ compensation would cover the cost of his new i-LIMB Hand.

“That surprised us all because normally, you have to work pretty hard to get something through workers’ comp,” Stack said. “And they approved it right away. We only had to do the one request and a month and a half later, I had an i-LIMB. So, I was like, ‘Wow, that’s cool!’ It’s like Christmas.”

What he believes made all the difference was that the application spelled out in no uncertain terms the life-enhancing benefits that would come from using such a versatile and technically advanced prosthetic.

“(My prosthetist) did such a good job of putting in why I wanted it, how I was going to use it, how it was going to better my life, that it came back approved right away,” Stack said.

By the time he was fitted with the Touch Bionics device, Stack had long grown accustomed to living as an amputee. His career as a corporate trainer demanded that he often speak before groups of people with his disability on display. But it was a different story earlier in his life, when he lost his hand at an age when social acceptance is key to one’s confidence and self-esteem.

“I think the worst part was probably more psychological in how I felt other people looked at me that I wasn’t a full person anymore, that I had only one hand and (wondered) are girls going to like me or not,” he said.

But as time progressed, he focused on the challenge of learning to get by with only one hand. On the basketball court, he would frustrate two-handed players who couldn’t get past his defence. At home, he would cut wood with an axe or chainsaw with the aid of his prosthetic hook-and-claw device. He credits his father for pushing him to learn how to make do.

“My dad was like, ‘You’ve got wood to cut. Go out there and figure out a way to do it.’ It was tough, but I did it and I do thank my dad a lot for that. He made me a strong person,” Stack said.

Over the years, he progressed from a hook-and-claw with a shoulder harness to a myoelectric prosthetic, but he found that the benefits of the myoelectric were overshadowed by the weight and bulk of the device. He gutted out the wiring to cut the weight. That meant the hand was useful only as a loose clamp that he had to close manually, but that was all he needed to play pool, which was all that mattered.

“Playing pool is one of my passions, I really love to play,” he said.

He learned of Touch Bionics’ i-LIMB Hand in late 2007 when he saw media coverage of Sgt. Juan Arredondo, one of the first U.S. patients to be fitted with the device, and contacted the company. Since receiving his own in January 2008, Stack has been amazed by the activities he has been able to perform. Thanks to the hand’s opposable thumb and individually powered fingers, he can again perform tasks such as lifting a drinking glass, peeling a banana and tying a tie. Even his girlfriend of two years has been fooled by its realistic function and life-like cosmesis.

“There have been times that my girlfriend has even had difficulties as far as realizing which hand she was grabbing when she’d walk up behind me and want to hold my hand as we’re walking through the store or something like that,” Stack said.

Perhaps the most profound change has been in how other people perceive him on the job. In some cases, it’s taken a couple of days for attendees of his training sessions to even realize he is using a prosthetic hand.

“I feel more confident in what I’m doing. If I’m presenting in front of a group or I’m training on something, I’m not feeling that people are looking at my hand,” Stack said. “They’re just looking at me as a person and hearing what I have to say.”

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