4th August 2026
Shelly, 58, was born with a limb difference and grew up in a household where she was never treated any differently than her siblings. She’s married with two children, and works as a counselor at the State of Michigan Rehabilitation Centre, part of the state’s Vocational Rehabilitation Programme. Over the years she’s worn body-powered hooks and myoelectric devices, but stepped away from her myo during COVID. This year she was fitted with a Hero PRO, funded by BlueCross BlueShield of Michigan. We sat down with her to talk about all-day comfort, decades of one-handed workarounds, and what it actually took to get her device funded.
I was born this way, and my parents just treated me like any of my other siblings. I never felt singled out at home. I attended Riley Hospital in Indianapolis for physical and occupational therapy, it’s a teaching hospital, and they were amazing at building practical, everyday skills. It was actually there that I met someone else with a limb difference for the first time, someone missing all four limbs. Both of my parents are right-handed, so they struggled to teach me how to do things left-handed. The hospital filled that gap.
Honestly, it’s been my whole life adapting, finding a workaround to do everything one-handed. But that comes at a cost. My sound side, my left side, is dealing with a lot of pain now from wear and tear, and I’ve developed arthritis in that shoulder. Decades of compensating catches up with you. That’s really what pushed me to look at upgrading.
I’ve spent my whole life finding a workaround to doing everything one-handed.
The weight difference is considerable. Going grocery shopping, using the grips to pick things up, you notice that the device doesn’t feel uncomfortable even when you’re holding something heavier. With previous devices, weight was something I was always aware of by the end of the day. That’s just not the case anymore.
Normally, yes, when I’m in the office, I wear my Hero PRO the whole day. It’s been so hot in Michigan lately that I’ve been working from home more, but on a typical day, it’s on from morning to evening without issue.
This time, yes, but it wasn’t always. With my last myo device, insurance approved the funding upfront, it was built and fitted, and then I received a bill for $48,000. It was a shock. Thankfully, my prosthetist at the time, she’s retired now, fought for eight months to make sure the insurer upheld their original approval. I wasn’t confident navigating insurance after that experience.
I received a bill for $48,000. It was a shock.
Jonah was fantastic. He handled all of the insurance paperwork, which matters a lot because we don’t know the codes or the deadlines you have to track, that’s not something patients are expected to know, but if you miss something, it can cost you. He knew exactly what he was doing and kept everything on schedule. He also knew we’d be traveling from Michigan, so he offered local intel on hotels and travel options. It was such a relief to have someone handle that side of it competently.
Between tracking insurance codes, managing appeal deadlines, and offering local travel intel for an out-of-state fitting, Shelly’s prosthetist handled the parts of the process patients usually have to figure out on their own, turning what had once been an eight-month fight into a smooth approval.
Talk to your local Open Bionics clinic about Hero PRO and insurance funding support. Register to request more information.
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