Could You Create Your Own Hands?

Around here at GeekMom, we’re impressed with resourcefulness and geeky ingenuity. We love stories about everyday people who create the next big board game or take on the accepted order of life and science. So how can we not adore this Chinese man, named Sun Jifa, who didn’t let a little thing like losing his hands slow him down?

He lost both of his hands when a homemade bomb, designed for fishing, blew up prematurely. The local hospital offered him prosthetic hands, but he’s a poor rural farmer. He is barely feeding his family. He didn’t have the money for hands.

He also didn’t have the access to technology so he could start a Facebook campaign. He didn’t have the option of creating a fund raising web page. What he did have was a work shop and some extra scrap metal. So he made himself some hands.

After tinkering with them for a few years, he’s found a prototype he can live with. One that he actually does live with, that allows him to run his farm and feed his family. His only complaint? That since they’re made of metal they sometimes get hot in the summer and cold in the winter.

I’m an amputee myself. I rely on really smart men and women with large workshops to make my limbs. If I’m complaining about my leg, it’s not because it’s made of metal and is reflecting the sun into my eyes. I honestly can’t imagine the things that Mr. Jifa suffers through but never complains about. He saw his situation with practical eyes and created his own solution. He is my hero.