Bionic Joe - Open Bionics

Durbin goes Bionic

"I don’t remember when I realized I was missing my left hand."

I’m Joey and I’ve worn a Hero Arm since August 2019. Since I was born without it its always been a part of my life so I never questioned it when I was little. I remember constantly trying to find work arounds for two handed tasks that kids my age often did such as tying shoes or playing with certain toys. In particular I remember the elaborate setups I created so that I could fire two nerf guns at once, or play two handed games on the Wii. I was never satisfied with hearing that I “couldn’t” or I “won’t be able to do it as well as the other kids”.

"My parents did everything they could to make sure that I could do whatever I set my mind to."

They quickly learned that If I wanted to do something, there wasn’t a thing in the world that could stop me. When I was in the fourth grade I started looking into prosthetics and I got fitted for a body powered split-hook prosthetic. I wore it for a few weeks and then never touched it again, all the years of finding my own way to do things made the hook feel cumbersome and burdening.

"For the next six years I dabbled in other low-cost prosthetics but nothing ever felt right to me"

Then, one day I saw an advertisement for Deus ex Mankind Divided. In the ad, they mentioned how they were teaming up with a small company called Open Bionics to create low cost prosthetic arms. Hearing this got me so excited and hopeful, every day I would check to see if they were any closer to a final product. While waiting for the Hero Arm to come to the US my dad and I got impatient, so we built their developer hand, the Brunel Hand. We became quite knowledgeable about the arm and the technology used to make it, which was so freaking cool!

Holding my coffee in the morning, frees up my right hand to do any number of tasks that I previously took longer completing. Just being able to hold a boxed lunch when there isn’t a table to eat at is a huge deal to me. In addition, the arm looks fantastic. I love being able to swap the covers, changing them depending on what I’m wearing or how I feel. I love customising them too, and building my own. The Hero Arm has already given me so much functionality and I’ve only just scratched the surface. I am so excited to see where Open Bionics goes in the future and I am so happy that I have gotten to be a part of it.