Using a Bionic Arm at 72: One Psychologist’s Experience

At 72, Mary, a retired psychologist, had already spent decades adapting, creating and thriving without a prosthetic. Born without her right hand due to amniotic band syndrome, she learned early how to do things her own way. Born without her right hand due to amniotic band syndrome, she learned early on how to do things her own way. She rode bikes, climbed trees, created art, and followed her curiosity. Confidence, her parents were told, would be her only barrier, but she overcame that too. Through her lived experience as a person with a limb difference, she became deeply interested in how the mind adapts, a curiosity that led her into a lifelong study of psychology.

One day, a video popped up in her social media feed. A Hero Arm user named Lucas showed off his bionic arm with articulating fingers. Mary stopped scrolling.

“Oh my goodness,” she thought. “There’s technology now.”

She picked up the phone and called the nearest Open Bionics clinic in Denver to ask a few questions. After speaking with Elise Dreiling, her certified prosthetist, Mary decided she needed to try a bionic arm for herself. She wanted to see what it could add to a life she had already built.

Insurance funded her Hero PRO, our advanced, water-resistant bionic arm designed for everyday use and precision. The device uses wireless MyoPods, which are myoelectric sensors that read muscle signals in the arm, to open and close the hand, switch grips and lock the fingers in place. The lightweight, breathable socket design allows Mary to perform bimanual tasks while maintaining comfort for extended wear.

She named it Brazo.

Since Thanksgiving, Brazo has become part of Mary’s daily routine, a tool she uses uses to eat and cook, hold her phone, carry groceries, row, practice Pilates, quilt, paint, crochet, knit, sew, stabilize tools and materials, and move through public spaces with greater balance and ease. She experiments constantly, testing grip patterns, adjusting techniques and figuring out what works best for different situations.

“I don’t quit trying something just because it’s difficult or I haven’t figured it out yet,” she said. “I will always give it a good shot.”

Mary has always been a problem-solver. She and her husband once built computers together back when keyboards had to be soldered by hand. Learning to activate the bionic hand by flexing her muscles came naturally to her, another system to understand and refine.

For years, Mary compensated physically for the difference in her arms. Over time, that imbalance led to back pain. With Brazo, she can distribute movement more evenly. She rows. She uses a Pilates reformer. She moves with more symmetry.

“Now both shoulder blades are working at the same time,” she said. “I’m noticing that my back is not bothering me as much already. It’s exciting.”

Mary has spent her life acutely aware of how a visible limb difference can make other people uncomfortable. Strangers might stare, glance away or retreat into polite silence.

That changed when she wore her bionic arm out in public.

On her first trip to the grocery store with Brazo, people smiled. They stopped to ask questions. A military veteran approached her to talk about friends who wore prosthetics. Another shopper pulled up his pant leg to show his own lower-limb device.

“There’s kind of a camaraderie about it,” Mary said. “People don’t hesitate.”

As a psychologist, she developed a theory.

“My natural hand was seen as a disability,” she said. “But a bionic arm represents ability. This is an addition to me.”

Kids reacted differently, too. Instead of asking what happened to her arm, they wanted to know how the bionic arm worked and what it could do. Mary recalled an uncomfortable moment from years earlier when a child innocently asked about her hand and was scolded and dragged away by an embarrassed parent.

“That’s not going to happen anymore,” she said. “It’s a different attitude.”

Mary does not claim the bionic arm gave her confidence. She had that long before. What surprised her was how it changed her willingness to engage with others.

“It has made me feel more outgoing,” she said. “I’m willing to talk to people about it.”

She sees it as empowerment. It does not hide her limb difference. It reframes it into something that signals capability.

Mary also had advice for others considering a bionic arm. Kids, she believes, adapt quickly and easily. “Give them something cool and they will make it their own” she said. “Adults need more time and patience. Don’t expect it to feel natural right away,. Wear it. Get used to the weight. Think of it as a tool. You don’t use a saw for every task.”

Her mindset extends beyond bionic technology. Mary talks about mental resilience the way some might talk about physical fitness. It is something to practice and build over time. If she were starting over academically, she said she would study resilience, particularly how people open themselves to change instead of resisting it.

“Your life is one way forever,” she said, “and then suddenly it’s another way.”

She often reflects on a quote attributed to Viktor Frankl, Holocaust survivor and author of Man’s Search for Meaning: “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our happiness.”

For Mary, Brazo represents that space.

“It’s an option,” she said. “I think it’s fun.”

After a lifetime of doing things one way, she is choosing a new way to grow.

If overuse injuries or a poorly fitting prosthesis are limiting your independence, a free consultation with a certified prosthetist can help determine whether a bionic arm is the right next step. Schedule your consult to explore what’s possible.