Science fiction has become science fact for a sheet metal worker whose arm was chopped off above the elbow in an factory accident.
Revolutionary surgery has transformed Tonney Forsberg’s life, giving him the world’s first fully bionic arm, just like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2.
It allows the dad-of-four, 54, to manipulate each finger as if it is his own arm. He told the Mirror: “I’m so proud of this. It feels natural, just like a part of me.”
Until now, crude bionic arms using remnant forearm muscles were only really feasible for below the elbow amputees. They were hard to control and only had a couple of simple hand-grip movements.
The new device has upper arm sensors that use artificial intelligence to translate the user’s intentions in the form of electrical signals to control the hand.
Tonney, of Langasjo, Sweden, was stocking a machine at the time of the 2015 accident. He said: “It chopped my arm off. The pain was awful. My colleagues were panicking and I had to tell them what to do and call the ambulance.
“While I was stuck in the machine I called my wife and told her. I didn’t know that my arm was lost. By the time they got me the ambulance my wife had the arm in a bag on her lap. We had to stop at a restaurant on the way to hospital to get some ice for it.”
When Tonney woke the next morning, he learned his arm couldn’t be reattached. Lengthy rehab followed, then a few years wearing an unwieldy prosthesis.
Eventually, Tonney was googling and came across the work of Prof Max Ortiz Catalan, director at Sweden’s Center for Bionics and Pain Research.
He said: “Max was initially looking for an amputee below the elbow but I emailed him and said: ‘I’m above the elbow but can I have one of these?’”
Surgeons and engineers integrated sensors and a skeletal implant during three operations to connect with the pioneering prosthesis. Details of the procedure are published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Tonney’s arm had to be attached using an electrode connector, which meant he had to lose 7cm of his remaining arm because the limb was “too long”.
He spent months training to use the arm on a computer which connected to the limb using Bluetooth.
Tonney still works for the same firm but now welds and works in the shop. He said: “People always ask about it and are amazed at how it works. The biggest thing is that this really feels a part of you.”
