every year about 4,000 babies in the
United States are born with some form of
congenital limb loss it’s often due to a
condition called amniotic band syndrome
and trionic band syndrome is not due to
genetics it’s not really caused by
anything in particular
it just happens the stigma of being born
missing part of a limb can follow a
child throughout their entire life and
it can even change how their identity
forms but fast-forward and these kids
grow up to live normal lives and I want
to share with you some of their
incredible stories so in April
I just gotten off a long flight and I’m
sitting in a coffee shop talking to a
mom and the dad about their experience
raising their two sons and they told me
all about it
baseball games tough days at school all
of the Legos they have a lot of Legos
and they walked me back to what it was
like when they saw the ultrasound with
her first and second son and they saw
him kick for the first time and they had
so many questions would he grow up to
have his dad’s compassion or his mom’s
resilience and they started to imagine
those first steps birthday cakes even
graduation and the specialist came in
and she told them you’re having a
healthy baby boy and they were ecstatic
but then her voice began to change and
due to an amniotic band that had formed
in the womb their son would be more in a
missing part of his right arm and the
family took a minute to really hear what
the specialist was saying what would
this mean for their son what would it
change what would they do and the
specialist continued and said from here
you have two options do you still want
to continue the pregnancy from before
the moment this little boy was born
people have been telling him that he’s
broken at school
growing up other kids would bully him
and tease him to remind him that he’s
not normal
other parents would quietly whisper
apologies to his mom when they would
walk by but for this family their dreams
for Zachary never wavered they knew that
he could and that he would overcome any
obstacle any challenge anything but for
the boy
it was hard the questions the doubts it
really weighed on him and he was often
asked what happened your arm and he
simply respond without a smile and say I
was born this way and these interactions
have an incredible impact on forming a
child’s identity not surprisingly
children who aren’t afraid to go to
school or interact with others do better
having people in your life who routinely
doubt whether or not you can handle
something can destroy your confidence it
can change what goals you run after and
it can even keep you from achieving what
you want to achieve these moments of
shame leave kids asking the universal
questions Who am I am i broken am i
enough and these type of questions tend
to drive parents to the conversation
about prosthetics and butt prosthetics
and access for children it’s still
really complicated whether it’s due to
high cost and a functional electric
device can be well over fifty thousand
dollars or the fact that doctors and
insurance companies are a little
hesitant because children grow so
quickly
can you imagine every time your
nine-year-old outgrew their shoes you
had to replace their expensive bionic
arm that would really be a lot and
because of this the standard for
children’s prosthetic even today tends
to be a cosmetic only device no function
or perhaps a hook device you want to
take a guess at what the rejection rates
are for kids who do
want to wear those kind of arms it’s
high quite high and that’s what my team
is working to change we think that we
can use technology to be able to help
everyone from kids to adults be able to
tackle any challenge they have any dream
that they want bionics are improving to
the point where now artificial limbs can
tackle all those challenges but it’s so
much more than just about function turns
out if you ask the kids it was never
even about being able to pick things up
let me help you picture it so you’re in
the grocery store and you see someone
walking over and you know that they’re
gonna ask those awkward questions what
happened to you was it an alligator and
these are real questions that our Bionic
kids have been asked it’s hard for
anyone in that situation to talk about
their experience from a position of
strength but especially a child and if
you’re wearing a heavy dull plastic like
device the prosthetic has already
started the conversation for you so we
decided we would go in an entirely
different direction and we use 3d
printers to do it
color confidence and expression this is
Joe Holly airs show holly wore her
custom creation on the New York Fashion
Week runway she wanted to help promote
inclusivity and some really cool fashion
we use 3d printers to bring together
these beautiful artistic designs and
functional neural prosthetic engineering
to give kids Ironman technology at a
price that’s so low we can donate every
device
[Music]
we believe that it was never about
function it was always about kids
believing that they are enough an
expression helps them find it the reason
that traditional prosthetics have such
high rejection rates is not because
children aren’t mature enough to handle
them it’s because they’re too heavy they
don’t have the right functionality and
worse dull plastic feels like an apology
for being broken so we decided at our
kitchen table that our team would try to
change all of that we designed for
function and expression we even had the
kids draw us pictures of what they
wanted their Bionic arms to look like
and they did not want it to look like
gall plastic and then we got to work
from the ground up 3d printing these
beautiful creations that could grow with
them over their their own growth spurts
and now that same conversation in the
grocery store has completely changed now
people stop and they say that is such a
cool arm how did you get it or how does
it work and the change in that
conversation can radically alter the
development of a child’s identity so
what does that look like for the kids
well at school on superhero day Alex now
dresses as himself
now that’s confidence he has the best
school picture day of any kid right Alex
tells us now that he wants to go to
college he wants to be able to use
technology to be able to help other
people just like him and be able to
tackle whatever dream they want when we
first met Alex he was afraid to go to
the grocery store because of all of
those awkward conversations and what he
had done to his identity what a
transformation
annie has been wearing her bionic arm
for a while now and she loves the color
and the expression it matches her cell
phone case
her and her yeti cup even her dress and
he’s really wonderful she dreams of
becoming a pediatric oncology nurse or a
dolphin trainer she’s still deciding
right now but it’s so clear that her
empathy and compassion just overflows
she’s already trying to encourage other
kids just like her that there is a
future and there are those dreams that
they have that they should run after
full-steam it’s really wonderful
identity plays an enormous role in how
we perceive the world what we do with
our free time even the goals we set
people with disabilities people with
impairments rarely identify with the
idea and the label of disability that
label is projected by society and we all
work exceptionally hard to prove to
everyone else around us that we are
enough and that starts as young as the
kindergartner on the playground and it
radically changes how we grow up how we
feel and what we do
so since starting to wear their Bionic
arms kids like Zachary and Alex have
seen incredible growth in their
confidence in their grades at school and
what they tell us about their dreams for
the future
they tell us now
that they all want to go to college they
all want to use technology for something
more to impact their communities
they envision themselves as fashion
models engineers anything they can set
their minds to and we believe them by
reframing the challenge with technology
and art we’ve helped unlock their secret
identities an expression helps them get
there now we need to reframe how we look
at the idea of disability and change
from a conversation of asking am i
enough to one of being able to celebrate
unique expression and differences and we
want all of these kids to know that
there truly are no limits thank you very
much
you
United States are born with some form of
congenital limb loss it’s often due to a
condition called amniotic band syndrome
and trionic band syndrome is not due to
genetics it’s not really caused by
anything in particular
it just happens the stigma of being born
missing part of a limb can follow a
child throughout their entire life and
it can even change how their identity
forms but fast-forward and these kids
grow up to live normal lives and I want
to share with you some of their
incredible stories so in April
I just gotten off a long flight and I’m
sitting in a coffee shop talking to a
mom and the dad about their experience
raising their two sons and they told me
all about it
baseball games tough days at school all
of the Legos they have a lot of Legos
and they walked me back to what it was
like when they saw the ultrasound with
her first and second son and they saw
him kick for the first time and they had
so many questions would he grow up to
have his dad’s compassion or his mom’s
resilience and they started to imagine
those first steps birthday cakes even
graduation and the specialist came in
and she told them you’re having a
healthy baby boy and they were ecstatic
but then her voice began to change and
due to an amniotic band that had formed
in the womb their son would be more in a
missing part of his right arm and the
family took a minute to really hear what
the specialist was saying what would
this mean for their son what would it
change what would they do and the
specialist continued and said from here
you have two options do you still want
to continue the pregnancy from before
the moment this little boy was born
people have been telling him that he’s
broken at school
growing up other kids would bully him
and tease him to remind him that he’s
not normal
other parents would quietly whisper
apologies to his mom when they would
walk by but for this family their dreams
for Zachary never wavered they knew that
he could and that he would overcome any
obstacle any challenge anything but for
the boy
it was hard the questions the doubts it
really weighed on him and he was often
asked what happened your arm and he
simply respond without a smile and say I
was born this way and these interactions
have an incredible impact on forming a
child’s identity not surprisingly
children who aren’t afraid to go to
school or interact with others do better
having people in your life who routinely
doubt whether or not you can handle
something can destroy your confidence it
can change what goals you run after and
it can even keep you from achieving what
you want to achieve these moments of
shame leave kids asking the universal
questions Who am I am i broken am i
enough and these type of questions tend
to drive parents to the conversation
about prosthetics and butt prosthetics
and access for children it’s still
really complicated whether it’s due to
high cost and a functional electric
device can be well over fifty thousand
dollars or the fact that doctors and
insurance companies are a little
hesitant because children grow so
quickly
can you imagine every time your
nine-year-old outgrew their shoes you
had to replace their expensive bionic
arm that would really be a lot and
because of this the standard for
children’s prosthetic even today tends
to be a cosmetic only device no function
or perhaps a hook device you want to
take a guess at what the rejection rates
are for kids who do
want to wear those kind of arms it’s
high quite high and that’s what my team
is working to change we think that we
can use technology to be able to help
everyone from kids to adults be able to
tackle any challenge they have any dream
that they want bionics are improving to
the point where now artificial limbs can
tackle all those challenges but it’s so
much more than just about function turns
out if you ask the kids it was never
even about being able to pick things up
let me help you picture it so you’re in
the grocery store and you see someone
walking over and you know that they’re
gonna ask those awkward questions what
happened to you was it an alligator and
these are real questions that our Bionic
kids have been asked it’s hard for
anyone in that situation to talk about
their experience from a position of
strength but especially a child and if
you’re wearing a heavy dull plastic like
device the prosthetic has already
started the conversation for you so we
decided we would go in an entirely
different direction and we use 3d
printers to do it
color confidence and expression this is
Joe Holly airs show holly wore her
custom creation on the New York Fashion
Week runway she wanted to help promote
inclusivity and some really cool fashion
we use 3d printers to bring together
these beautiful artistic designs and
functional neural prosthetic engineering
to give kids Ironman technology at a
price that’s so low we can donate every
device
[Music]
we believe that it was never about
function it was always about kids
believing that they are enough an
expression helps them find it the reason
that traditional prosthetics have such
high rejection rates is not because
children aren’t mature enough to handle
them it’s because they’re too heavy they
don’t have the right functionality and
worse dull plastic feels like an apology
for being broken so we decided at our
kitchen table that our team would try to
change all of that we designed for
function and expression we even had the
kids draw us pictures of what they
wanted their Bionic arms to look like
and they did not want it to look like
gall plastic and then we got to work
from the ground up 3d printing these
beautiful creations that could grow with
them over their their own growth spurts
and now that same conversation in the
grocery store has completely changed now
people stop and they say that is such a
cool arm how did you get it or how does
it work and the change in that
conversation can radically alter the
development of a child’s identity so
what does that look like for the kids
well at school on superhero day Alex now
dresses as himself
now that’s confidence he has the best
school picture day of any kid right Alex
tells us now that he wants to go to
college he wants to be able to use
technology to be able to help other
people just like him and be able to
tackle whatever dream they want when we
first met Alex he was afraid to go to
the grocery store because of all of
those awkward conversations and what he
had done to his identity what a
transformation
annie has been wearing her bionic arm
for a while now and she loves the color
and the expression it matches her cell
phone case
her and her yeti cup even her dress and
he’s really wonderful she dreams of
becoming a pediatric oncology nurse or a
dolphin trainer she’s still deciding
right now but it’s so clear that her
empathy and compassion just overflows
she’s already trying to encourage other
kids just like her that there is a
future and there are those dreams that
they have that they should run after
full-steam it’s really wonderful
identity plays an enormous role in how
we perceive the world what we do with
our free time even the goals we set
people with disabilities people with
impairments rarely identify with the
idea and the label of disability that
label is projected by society and we all
work exceptionally hard to prove to
everyone else around us that we are
enough and that starts as young as the
kindergartner on the playground and it
radically changes how we grow up how we
feel and what we do
so since starting to wear their Bionic
arms kids like Zachary and Alex have
seen incredible growth in their
confidence in their grades at school and
what they tell us about their dreams for
the future
they tell us now
that they all want to go to college they
all want to use technology for something
more to impact their communities
they envision themselves as fashion
models engineers anything they can set
their minds to and we believe them by
reframing the challenge with technology
and art we’ve helped unlock their secret
identities an expression helps them get
there now we need to reframe how we look
at the idea of disability and change
from a conversation of asking am i
enough to one of being able to celebrate
unique expression and differences and we
want all of these kids to know that
there truly are no limits thank you very
much
you
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