A group of engineering students has given a 9-year-old Rhode Island boy a special Christmas gift: a prosthetic arm.
On Thursday, Scituate High School students presented Ollie Mancini with a prosthetic arm that they created using a 3-D printer. Ollie was born without the lower part of his left arm.
After putting on the purple prosthetic, Ollie celebrated by giving hugs, shaking hands and throwing his arms in the air.
Students at Scituate High School designed a prosthetic arm for 9-year-old Ollie Mancini
The arm was made using a 3-D printer. Ollie, who was adopted from China, was born without the lower part of his left arm
His mother, Nicole Mancini, is an eighth-grade math teacher at the middle school in Scituate. She heard of others using 3-D printers to build prosthetics and approached the high school with the idea. The school hopes to be able to make another arm for Ollie as he grows.
Nicole, who adopted Ollie from China when he was 2, told WPRI: ‘The fact that they wanted to help me and they wanted to help my son is the greatest gift that anyone could ever have.’
She said she had actually taught many of the students who helped build the arm.
Nicole said the students have given her son ‘the gift of the independence’.
Ollie is pictured with his mother, Nicole, an 8th grade math teacher at the school who also had taught many of the students who created Ollie’s arm
Each individual part of the arm was designed and printed individually
Nicole said: ‘The fact that they wanted to help me and they wanted to help my son is the greatest gift that anyone could ever have.’ Students are pictured designing the arm
Nicole first heard about the potential for 3-D prosthetic arms through an organization called e-Nable, and she then brought her findings to the attention of the school, the Valley Breeze reports.
The students created a custom fit for Ollie via scaling and special software.
All parts for the prosthetic were printed individually and the process took around six weeks, Turn to 10 reports.
The students who built the arm are part of the high school’s Engineering Academy.
Back in September, a Queensland, Australia man became the first person in the world to receive a new shin bone created with a 3D printer.