Sammie Rameau from Best is eight years old and has been missing part of his left forearm from birth. He would like to play sports, preferably with a ball. His dream was to be able to play baseball. Students of the Fontys Pulsed Academy therefore made a specially designed prosthesis for Sammie.
Fontys pulsed academy
Sammie’s face beams when he hits the first ball with the baseball prosthesis on Friday at the Fontys Pulsed Academy in Eindhoven. “I really want to play sports, because otherwise you get fat,” Sammie says as he proudly looks at the baseball bat. The bat is attached to his arm with the prosthesis. “I also play handball and I really like sports,” says Sammie.
Making the boy happy
Noury Schroten is one of the Ad-Engineering students who worked on the baseball arm for Sammie. “Sammie came here a few times and told us exactly what he liked. So we developed the prosthesis so that he can put it on quickly with a clamping system. A baseball glove can also be easily screwed on to the prosthesis. It’s very nice to make something like this when you know the person you’re doing it for. I want to give the best I have, because I don’t want to disappoint Sammie.”
3D printer
Each of the students is proud of the result made with a 3D printer. “We worked on the prosthesis for three months and it’s snug; Sammie can swing it around and even now that he has it on for real for the first time he manages to hit a ball right away .” Unfortunately, catching the ball with the baseball glove is proving a bit trickier.
“Sammie is used to doing everything with his right hand, so catching with the left really has to be learnt,” father Michiel Rameau explains. “Sammie has also had two other prostheses before. One with a hand and another with a fork attached, but he has used those very little. He can do almost everything with one hand, just not tie shoelaces.”
Chainsaw
Just for fun, the students had also made a yellow plastic chainsaw for on the prosthesis. “When he was here to try on the baseball prosthesis, he immediately wanted to take it home,” says Noury. Sammie proudly shows off the chainsaw. “It did break off once, but fortunately it was fixed again,” he says.
Whether he will join a baseball club with his prosthesis he does not know yet. “I do want to play baseball, but we are not sure yet if it is possible,” he says, beaming.
Source: Studio040.nl
Translated by: Anitha Sevugan
