Texas kindergartner gets 3D printer Iron Man hand
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A Texas kindergartner is feeling like Iron Man thanks to a new prosthetic hand that was created by a 3D printer.
Keith Harris, 5, got to show off his new high-tech hand Friday as he exchanged high-fives with classmates at Mossman Elementary School in the Houston suburb of League City.
“When I first got my hand I thought it would be difficult for me to do stuff with it,” Keith told KPRC-TV in Houston. “I love it.”
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The boy was born with a deformed right hand caused by a rare condition called symbrachydactyly.
Keith was all smiles in a T-shirt that read, “Ten Fingers are Overrated” as he made a fist with his new mechanical hand. “It’s not that hard,” he told the station.
Kim Harris said her son has come out of his shell with the new hand.
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“This is something that’s been really positive that’s come out of having an upper-limb difference,” she said. “His personality has really come alive. He’s had confidence that’s he’s never had before.”
Keith got his 3D hand through a group called the E-Nable Organization.
KTRK-TV in Houston said a volunteer in North Carolina created the hand, which cost only $45. A new prosthetic would have been too expensive, about $40,000, and would have lasted only as long as Keith didn’t grow.
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Members of the Clear Falls High School baseball team visited Keith’s classroom to give the big baseball fan a cap and T-shirt.