14 DAY TRIAL // For the longest time, prosthetic limbs have been getting better and better, but not really any prettier, all told. That didn't sit well with 24-year-old Natasha Hope-Simpson, so she took matters into her own hands.
What she did was create her own 3D printed prosthetic leg, after she decided that the one the hospital provided wasn't going to cut it.
Natasha Hope-Simpson was left crippled by a hit-and-run car crash that pinned her between two vehicles so hard that she lost her left leg below the knee, even after being rushed to the hospital for surgery.
The prosthesis she was given was functional and let her walk around well enough, as well as such things can manage at least.
But she didn't think that something functional couldn't be beautiful, so she designed her own prosthetic leg, after which she had it 3D printed.
The woman drew on her studies at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and created what she describes as “a more feminine looking leg.”
You can see the result in the photo above. The replacement limb looks like a boot more than anything else. Maybe she can even get a matching shoe.
“Everybody should have a say in what sort of look their prosthetic has, because it’s a part of their body,” Natasha said.
Thinking Robot Studios were the ones that 3D printed the item after Natasha was done making the 3D model according to her specifications.
The panels mirror her symmetry, just as she wanted, and are totally modular as well, which means that they can be removed.
It took Thinking Robot Studios seven days to produce the prosthesis, according to representative Kendall Joudrie, but they kept her measurements and will have an easier time reprinting it.
And if a single panel is damaged, they can replace only that component. This even opens up fashion choices, in a way, because Natasha can design replacement shin plates, for example, or apply any creative element to her new leg.
On a related note, Ms. Hope-Simpson's activities got her a tentative partnership, of sorts, with Thinking Robot Studios, so she'll continue to design things with and for them in the future.
If nothing else, this proves that the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design student has a really optimistic view of life, being capable of treating a harrowing experience as a much more positive life-changing event.