London - Born with no right arm below the elbow, it was hard for little Charlie Egan to unwrap his presents – let alone play with them.
But the five-year-old has properly got to grips with his gifts this year thanks to a new prosthetic limb – made using a 3D printer.
Charlie is thought to be the first child in the UK to have an arm created with the breakthrough technology, in which solid objects can be printed from a digital file.
Operated by flexing the elbow to control the fingers, the arm even comes in the red and blue of his favourite superhero Spider-Man. Best of all, it means Charlie can get the best use out of toys like his scooter.
His mother Penny, 34, said: “It will change his life. Instead of saying what happened, now people say, ‘Wow, you have a superhero arm’.”
Charlie, of Lowestoft, Suffolk, had always preferred not to use the prosthesis he was given as a baby – even learning to crawl and walk without it.
Years on, Mrs Egan and husband David, 32, decided Charlie needed a different approach and contacted US-based experts E-nable.
The Baltimore network of engineers and academics designed the arm before having it made using a 3D printer based in London. - Daily Mail