Soldier controls bionic arm using power of thought

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/11/soldier-controls-bionic-arm-using-power-of-thought

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A soldier whose arm was blown off by a rocket-propelled grenade in Afghanistan has become the first person in the UK to master a prosthetic limb controlled by thought.

Corporal Andrew Garthwaite, 26, has spent two years learning how to move the arm and grip objects after a six-hour operation to have the limb wired into his body at a medical facility in Vienna.

The operation involved rewiring some of Garthwaite's nerves so that nerve fibres that once controlled his arm and hand movements instead hooked up to his chest muscles. Electrodes placed on his chest pick up the muscle movements and convert them into signals that direct the prosthetic limb.

Garthwaite, from South Shields, lost the whole of his right arm in a firefight with the Taliban in Helmand in September 2010. He became the first Briton to have the surgery, known as targeted muscle reinnervation.

The revolutionary approach has been hailed as a breakthrough in bionics and rehabilitation because it gives people natural control over their artificial limb. To grip, a unit in the prosthetic hand drives the thumb, index and middle fingers together, with the ring and little fingers following.

On the completion of his rehabilitation, the soldier said: "It has been a really long journey, enjoyable in some places but frustrating in others. I'm going to have a nice Christmas with the family and my wife. I'd like to go into TV presenting in the future. Whatever doors open, I'm looking forward to what is out there."

At the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, at Headley Court in Epsom, Surrey, Garthwaite demonstrated that he could carry out simple tasks using the arm such as potting a plant and making a jam sandwich. In the past year, he has driven a car and got back on his motorbike.

"When I first got told about the operation, I thought it was some sort of fairytale, that someone was taking the mickey," he said. "But here I am today with this arm that is fitted and works off my mind. It's unbelievable.

"It was definitely a risk. I wasn't worried at all because I had nothing to lose, so it was a risk that I was willing to take."

Doctors who perform the surgery advise patients that they will need time, patience and stamina to learn how to use the limb because it takes up to three years for the nerve to grow into the chest muscle. Garthwaite's artificial limb cost £60,000, and was paid for by the Ministry of Defence.

The defence minister Anna Soubry met Garthwaite on Wednesday. "I never thought I'd see something like this in my life time," she said. "I think you have to pinch yourself and think: he is doing this with his mind, with his brain. It is quite uncanny."

Gillian Conway, a prosthetist at Headley Court who has treated Garthwaite for the past two years, said: "It is a big step forward in prosthetics to be able to give someone intuitive control.

"You've always got to select the patient carefully. There is a lot of trauma that the patient has to go through. You need a lot of power and patience."

Her colleague, Tim Jones, a rehabilitation consultant who treated Garthwaite, said: "He's shown incredible resilience to get to today. You have to rewire your whole brain. There is no reason why this shouldn't be allowed on the NHS, too."

Soubry said the technology could eventually help people across the country who had suffered accidents, not only those who had been injured while serving in the armed forces.

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