CLEVELAND, Ohio — A teen girl from Ecuador is again able to write her name for the first time in three years, thanks to the work of high school students from Cleveland and a nonprofit that delivers medical care overseas.
Samantha Chango, 13, had her left arm amputated as the result of a bus accident. Nerve damage in her right arm left her unable to move that arm, wiggle her fingers or open and close her hand.
Then a bit of serendipity brought together a Cleveland-based high school robotics team and a nonprofit that provides medical care around the world. Together, they attempted to design, build and deliver a prosthetic arm.
The project would be a first for the robotics students. They were used to building industrial-sized robots for competitions, but not anything as delicate or intricate as an arm or hand. They would need to learn how to use a 3D printer and figure out how to make the prosthetic arm fit properly on a person who was thousands of miles away.
Despite the challenges, the robotics team said yes.
“I felt bad that she didn’t have money for a prosthetic,” recalled robotics team member Victoria Tellez, a senior at Davis Aerospace and Maritime High School.
“Knowing you’re doing something that big – changing a life – is amazing,” said fellow robotics team member Karla Zorrilla, a senior at the same school.
Two members of the Greater Cleveland FIRST Robotics Initiative demonstrate how volunteers in Ecuador measured an amputee’s remaining hand. The measurements helped the robotics team design a prosthetic arm for the amputee.Julie E Washington, cleveland.com
Two organizations team up for project
The joint project started with a Rotary International virtual club meeting this spring. In attendance was a representative of IMAHelps, a California-based nonprofit that organizes medical humanitarian missions around the world. In the past 21 years, the organization has provided free medical, dental and surgical care — including prosthetics — to more than 100,000 patients in Central and South America.
Also attending was JonDarr Bradshaw, community engagement coordinator for the Great Lakes Science Center and mentor to the Greater Cleveland FIRST Robotics Initiative, a Cleveland-based robotics team with about 60 students from four Cleveland Municipal School District high schools.
Teens from East Technical High School, MC2Stem High School, Davis Aerospace and Maritime High School and John Marshall School of Information Technology meet at the science center to build industrial-sized robots for competitions across the country.
In the Rotary meeting, the IMAHelps representative expressed a need for people with engineering expertise to make and donate artificial limbs to its mission trips.
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