A Texas kindergartner is feeling like Iron Man thanks to a new prosthetic hand that was created by a 3D printer.
Keith Harris, 5, got to show off his new high-tech hand Friday as he exchanged high-fives with classmates at Mossman Elementary School in the Houston suburb of League City.
“When I first got my hand I thought it would be difficult for me to do stuff with it,” Keith told KPRC-TV in Houston. “I love it.”
The boy was born with a deformed right hand caused by a rare condition called symbrachydactyly.
Keith was all smiles in a T-shirt that read, “Ten Fingers are Overrated” as he made a fist with his new mechanical hand. “It’s not that hard,” he told the station.
Kim Harris said her son has come out of his shell with the new hand.
“This is something that’s been really positive that’s come out of having an upper-limb difference,” she said. “His personality has really come alive. He’s had confidence that’s he’s never had before.”
Keith got his 3D hand through a group called the E-Nable Organization.
KTRK-TV in Houston said a volunteer in North Carolina created the hand, which cost only $45. A new prosthetic would have been too expensive, about $40,000, and would have lasted only as long as Keith didn’t grow.
Members of the Clear Falls High School baseball team visited Keith’s classroom to give the big baseball fan a cap and T-shirt.
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