Old Bike, New Arm

“If I can fix a motorcycle, why can’t I fix a prosthetic,” says arm amputee Mark Lesek in this week’s Feature Video (Mark Lesek: A New/Old Prosthetic). Mark is a guy with a dilapidated old motorcycle and a prosthetic problem.

Being an amputee is a curious thing. Not so much the piecing of plastic and metal parts together to replace a limb for me (well, I guess that is kind of curious), but more weird is people’s perceptions of prosthetic potential.

The iconic image of amputees, I hope, has moved beyond peg-legged pillaging pirates. But I think with all the great news about futuristic prosthetic research, somehow the public's perception of what’s doable in the prosthetic world has landed on the Hollywood-side of real life.

Don't get me wrong. We have come a long, long way. We may not be able to leap a building in a single bound comic book-style with a new leg, but we can run, hike and climb again. And hand prosthetics are looking and acting like real hands more than ever before. But hold on... how functional are they really? Many-a amputee brother have admitted that while their five-finger-flinching new hand was amazingly cool, “old faithful” (their more conventional hand or hook) stayed as an important part of daily life.

I'm in the works of getting a new pair of arms made right now, and my friends at Otto Bock Healthcare Canada are fabricating some fancy new features into the arms… (shameless shout-out coming: Thank-you Caroline, Kyla and Tanya)... but nothing that is going to help me play the piano again or rock a riff like a Guitar Hero. It’s more cosmetic stuff that I'm really, truly anxious to show off.

The point of all this? Oh yeah, our featured video this week at Disability Today Network. My brother sent me the link to this video to check out. He, like my other family members and friends, know that I don't subscribe to the latest-and-greatest prosthetic media hype. They know that I'm on top of what's new and what's right for me.

But this video is different. Just a guy. A guy from Tasmania. A guy with a dilapidated old motorcycle and a prosthetic problem. A guy inspired by a bike to find a solution to his problem. A guy that marries his ingenuity and his mechanical skills to make a prosthesis that’s “up to the job,” as he says.

But his universal message is most “up to the job” as he so eloquently concludes the video with... "No matter whether it is a bike, a prosthetic arm, or your life, if you can take it apart you can make it better."

Check it out.