Technological advances have undoubtedly revolutionized the lives of many. For one man, they’ve given him a new lease on a life of struggle.
Les Baugh, now 59, was 17 years old the day his life changed forever. His stepbrother had challenged him to a race when he turned around and ran directly into a set of power lines. He lost both of his arms, and he was told he wouldn’t live to see his 21st birthday; if he did, they said, he wouldn’t be able to walk. “I didn’t stand a chance,” he says. “Everything I had going was gone."
As the New York Times reports, thanks to engineers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Baugh is learning to use prosthetic limbs with the near-functionality of full range of motion – they’re even able to curl as much as 45 pounds.
Mapping his nerve endings, specialists are developing technology that responds to his brain signals, which is known as Modular Prosthetic Limbs (MPL), says the Times.
Last year, scientists were able to make a dead heart removed from a cadaver start beating again. This year, they’ve managed to give a man with no arms the gift of mobility without invasive surgeries and using only his mind. The sky’s the limit for what we’ll accomplish next.
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