Rotary District 3150 in support of The Ellen Meadows Prosthetic Hand Foundation, USA embarked on a unique initiative.
They are organizing a unique Camp to be held in the city on Thursday, 28th April from 9.30 am to 5.30 pm at Mallareddy University, Maisammaguda, Dulapally, Hyderabad. It is probably the biggest ever camp on the Prosthetic Hands in the state of Telangana
The LN-4 Below Elbow Mechanical Functional Hands worth several thousand rupees will be provided free of cost to the needy. They are aiming to provide over 400 prosthetic hands in the camp worth a couple of crores.
The LN-4 Prosthetic Hands will help perform the activities of daily living such as writing, holding a pen, riding bicycle to name a few.
The Prosthetic hands were exhibited and demonstrated to the media to showcase the ease with which beneficiaries can use them, their efficiency and their multi-functionality.
Rotarians Mohan Kumar, LN-4 Global Ambassador; K Prabhakar, District Governor, Rotary Dist. 3150; Valmiki Hari Kishan Co-Convener and DN Gauri Project Chairman who addressed the press conference, appealed to the deserving people to utilize the opportunity
The deserving people who wish to take advantage of the opportunity should have a minimum of 4 inches below the elbow. The prosthesis is imported from the USA. They are Mechanical Functional Hands.
These are the next generation mechanical below elbow device that complements LN4’s prosthetic hand. The LN4 prosthetic hand is a low-cost, light, durable, and functional prosthetic hand. A prosthetic Hand is an artificial, functional hand.
Since 2007, the Foundation donated 68,000 hands in over 80 countries on six of the seven continents. In India, more than 24,000 hands have been provided.
LN-4 prosthetic hand is most appropriate for below-elbow losses and is appropriate for all ages over the age of 8-10 years. One size device fits all recipients and functions as either the left or right hand. The hand can be attached easily with Velcro straps and is easily removed by the wearer in a few seconds. The hand will be delivered to each recipient in a zipper pouch which contains everything needed: an LN-4 hand, all straps and illustrated instructions for fitting and simple tasks.
The LN-4 Prosthetic Hand is non-surgical. It is a simple, low cost, durable, reliable and functional “helper's hand”. It is constructed of “coco puff” colour, injection molded plastic, with aluminum, brass and stainless-steel metal parts. The LN-4 hand is resistant to water, heat, dirt and salt. It is easy to clean with just clear water. The hand is strong and, when correctly fit on the recipient’s arm, will support more than 4-4.5 kgs of weight. It just weighs
400-450 gms.
For this device to be successful, recipients must have 14cm of the residual limb below the elbow to utilize this prosthetic device, measured from the tip of the elbow to the tip of the remaining arm to assure a strong fitting for the cuff. Additionally, there can be no remaining fingers, thumb, or wrist, as these will interfere with the cuff and are likely more useful than the LN4 hand. The arm should be flexible and fully healed with no open sores or bandages to interfere with the attachment.
It is solely mechanical with no electronic parts. The hand operates to grasp an object by pressing the fingers of the hand with another body part or against a hard surface. The hand releases an object by pressing the wrist of the hand with another body part or against a hard object. By design, the operation of the hand is like using a simple tool, whereby merely seeing how the hand functions are to know how to operate the hand with minimal instruction needed.
The wearing of the hands is performed like putting on and taking off a sock by merely slipping the” sleeve” of the hand on and off the residual limb, and then tightening or undoing a Velcro strap that holds the sleeve in place. The wearing of the hands was designed so they may be done by the amputee themselves in about thirty seconds. They merely have to see how the sleeve is put on and taken off to be able to do it themselves.
The LN-4 hands are always provided at no cost to the amputees, and almost always in circumstances where the amputees have neither the money to pay for prosthetic hands nor access to prosthetic hands.
The Ellen Meadows Prosthetic Hand Foundation, USA is a United States legal non-profit developed manufacturing capability to build and distribute several hundred prototype LN-4 hands.