According to the World Health Organization (WHO), only 1 out of every 10 people who need prosthetics actually has access to them.
Read more: https://www.wzzm13.com/article/news/health/michigan-man-prosthetic-legs-out-of-bike-parts/69-b58fcd9c-0074-49ea-b68d-85214c221f94
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Today is World Bicycle Day, and one Michigan man is celebrating by using the mode of transportation for something rather unusual, and it’s all to help reduce a staggering global inequity. I spoke to him to find out how. It’s widely believed the wheel was invented around 4200 BC in ancient Mesopotamia. From early pull carts to modern trucks, the invention was a moment in history changing life on Earth as we knew it. Now, one Michigan man, hey there. How is one upping the invention, reinventing the wheel with a set of wheels, right? Yeah, yeah, true. Ben Hogan. I was, I was first a bicycle mechanic. — He’s using
— his former career skills. When you’re trying to reinvent the wheel, you want to. You want to learn — the initial wheel first
— to make something new using spokes, tires, — and framework of a bicycle to make this
— essentially a lightweight functional, dependable prosthesis, a leg. Made from bike parts, bicycles already welded together to sustain human body weight, right? So all I’ve done is, is alter it in such a way that now we sustain human body weight with a different configuration. — But why
— aimed at solving a global issue that so far nobody in my profession has been able to. To hit on the head, worldwide, 9 out of every 10 people who need assistive products like a prosthetic do not have access to one. That’s for a lack of availability, trained personnel, policy, — and of course the high
— costs. But there are bicycles laying. All over the planet that could be configured and implemented in such a way to hopefully help that population. Hogan is now a prosthetist working for Mary Free Bed Rehab Hospital. He’s made bike legs for two patients. So far, so good. But eventually we got to the point. Where he was walking good enough, he was walking in his yard with it. The socket is custom made out of a wicker basket. I had to learn how to weave, so it’s part of the process. The foot, the wheels with a rocker connected with spokes to the seat frame. — This is where
— the seat would go, and the seat post is right here, right? So I can change the height of the prosthesis by adjusting the seat post. Maybe he’s not actually reinventing the wheel. My hopes are high, more like reinventing the purpose of the wheel. I hope that it serves as a gigantic paradigm shift in the prosthetic world, but he hopes his work sparks a chain reaction. When I’m 80 or something to look back and to say that I at least tried. And Hogan is not holding close to his designs for the bike leg either. He’s working with Michigan State University engineering students to teach others to make them as well. There’s even plans you can see on his website. Next, he’s gearing up to travel to Sweden this month to present the bike leg to an international audience during a prosthetics conference. You can learn more about his work on 30yoS side.com.