Does Anyone Need a Hand?

We are now just outside of Khon Kaen, in the North Eastern part of Thailand. We rented a car from Bangkok and pretty much followed highway 2 all the way up. Kevin bravely took on the task of driving and expertly navigated us on the ‘wrong’ side of the road for the duration of the journey. Before leaving Bangkok, we stopped to pick up Dr. Pariyasoot Intasuwan so she could do the road trip with us. She and her husband James Quilty head the Thai Reach program at Sirindhorn hospital. James will be traveling for business for most of July so we are under the welcoming, fun and giving care of Dr. Intasuwan. We got to know her on our drive and she is wonderful. We stopped at a local restaurant for some authentic Thai food and were treated to a feast.

We arrived in Khon Kaen late and got settled into our accommodation near the hospital before parting ways with the doctor. She insisted we sleep in the next day and not start at the hospital until 11am. We gladly took her up on this offer. The next day we made it to the prosthetics lab at the hospital and were introduced to Mana. He is the resident expert in assembling the 3D printed E-Nable devices. He will be our guide and teacher for the time of our visit. We are already having a lot of laughs with him but hopefully we can learn some Thai and get to know him better.

We hit the ground running and assembled two hands the first day. Dr. Intasuwan first had us help with measuring and fitting based on sketches of patients’ hands, and we watched Mana assemble a prosthetic arm. The model of device we brought with us is a hand and is called the Phoenix. Mana was assembling a model called the Unlimbited Arm. We got to meet a young boy with a congenital amputation just below the right elbow. He was being fitted for a new Unlimbited Arm as he was growing out of his old one. We were able to see the measuring and fitting process and the amazing resourcefulness of the Thai Reach crew in adjusting and altering devices to be fitted and comfortable, with limited resources.

After this we built our first two Phoenix hands. The process is as follows. Once the pieces are 3D printed, the excess material that is printed around each part needs to be shaved off with a knife. The wrist section of the hand then needs to be heated and curved to fit. After this, the pieces can be assembled with the 3D printed pins, before the cords that connect and bend the fingers are added and set with the very few screws this model requires. The model is such that when the patient bends their wrist, the fingers flex and the hand closes. The cord used is akin to fishing wire. It is non-flexible and extremely strong. After the hand is assembled and wired, Velcro straps are added and silicon fingertips to make gripping easier.

We are already learning a lot and looking forward to meeting more of the children. We are headed to the hospital early this morning as a Phoenix hand needs to be completed in a hurry for a patient.

Please leave any questions you have about the building process in the comments and we will answer them as best we can!