In The Media | 14 October 2014

This little girl has just received a new hand – in her favourite colours

A little girl from Scotland who was born with no fingers on her left hand has become the first child in the UK to have a prosthetic hand made using a 3D printer.

When five year old Hayley Fraser began to feel self-conscious about her lack of fingers and struggled to stay on her scooter, Hayley’s parents reached out to American not-for profit organisation E-nable, a group of volunteer engineers, artists and academics who make affordable synthetic limbs for kids around the world.

Source: mamamia.com.au

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Hi, I’m David Fraser I’m from Inverness.

This is my daughter Hayley who’s 5. She was born with Symbrachydactyly on her left hand. Hayley was born with little stumps on her left hand instead of full grown fingers.

Earlier this year I got in touch with a chap called Frankie Flood from the University of Wisconsin in the United States of America, and he kindly made a 3D printed hand for Hayley, free of charge.

As Hayley was born with her small hand, its never ever stopped her doing day to day tasks. However with her new prosthetic hand she can pick up heavier objects such as fruit or teddies and it can also give her counterbalance when she is riding her scooter. Before Hayley got her hand her options to her were to have a toe removed from one of her feet and put on as a finger on her left hand so she can have a pinching action. However it wasn’t an option for us to put her through that as she was so young at the time. So now we’ve looked into helping other children in the United Kingdom and we’re also working with Hayley’s plastic surgeon to get these hands built over here for children in the UK.