An Illinois High School Is 3D Printing A New Hand For A Girl Born Without Fingers - And It Will Only Cost $5
Nine-year-old Kylie Wicker of Rockford, Illinois was born without fingers on her left hand, but enterprising students taking the Engineering Graphics class at Boylan Catholic are using a 3D printer to manufacture a prosthetic hand for her, reports MyFoxPhilly.
Kylie's father, Jeromy Wicker, knew that the school had a 3D printer - a Makerbot Replicator, specifically - and reached out to the school upon learning that 3D printing technology could be used to make prosthetics useful to people like his daughter.
These prosthetics can cost as much as $50,000, a grievous figure compared to the projections of Bud May, teacher of the Engineering Graphics class: "The total cost of this will be barely $5. Maybe a dollar's worth of plastic and a couple of bucks for the fasteners."
Here are a couple of pictures of what the hand looks like:
When it's ready for her on Friday, Kylie's new hand will enable her to do a number of things that were previously impossible or difficult.
"I can finally ride my bike," she told FOX.
For some reason, the B-roll of this news story is embeddable. Check it out below for a few comments from Kylie, her parents, and the teacher leading the class designing her arm.
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