Thought Controlled Artificial Limbs
The following case study explains how thought controlled artificial limbs redefine life and death for severely handicapped individuals. As technology changes due to unprecedented innovation, as in the case of thought controlled artificial limbs, the definition of life and death can be altered. Physically handicapped people who suffered severe trauma are now able to regain a quality of life they believed was lost forever. This case study shows how revolutionary biomedical technology and surgery applied to one man changed history by redefining life and death.
In 2001, Jesse Sullivan, a 54 year old electrical worker from Tennessee was repairing high voltage power lines when he accidentally touched an active cable that contained 7,500 volts of electricity. The high voltage electrocution caused severe third-degree electrical burns that resulted in Mr. Sullivan having both arms amputated and multiple surgeries. The surgeries consisted of two skin grafts which sealed the open wounds where both arms had been amputated at shoulder level. Seven weeks after surgery, Mr. Sullivan arrived at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago where he was fitted with conventional myoelectric prosthetic arms. The myoelectric arms had electrodes mounted on the shoulder skin grafts and subsequently became hyper-sensitive, causing excruciating pain for Mr. Sullivan. The solution to relieve Mr. Sullivan of his severe pain became a biomedical revolution. The doctors knew they had to move the myoelectric electrodes away from the hyper-sensitive skin grafts. The electrodes, however, had to be located near a nerve. The solution was to take the existing nerve endings that were currently located at Mr. Sullivan’s hyper-sensitive shoulder and graft them to the pectoral muscle on his chest.
After six months of healing, the nerves became integrated into the pectoral muscle. Since the nerves which formerly controlled his arms were now on his chest, the electrodes could be transferred to his chest, thereby solving the hyper-sensitivity issue. The newly placed electrodes on his pectoral muscle, over the nerve graft, were now able to detect any nerve impulses resulting from thought, and transmit the signal via the electrode to Mr. Sullivan’s prosthetic arms. The success of Mr. Sullivan’s procedure made him the first man in the world to control a prosthetic arm from a nerve muscle graft. In addition to the nerve muscle grafts, two entirely new artificial bionic arms were designed for him. The results were extraordinary. Mr. Sullivan officially became the world’s first non-fictional cyborg. He was able to close his 5 digit prosthetic hand simply by thinking about it. The nerve that traditionally stimulated his amputated biological hand to close now stimulated a portion of his pectoral muscle to contract. The portion of contracting pectoral muscle was detected by the electrodes connected to his myoelectric arm, thereby opening and closing his prosthetic hand. Mr. Sullivan could now easily hug his grandchildren, carry his groceries, and vacuum his house. The revolutionary surgical procedure in addition to state of the art prosthetic innovations have enabled him to simply think of a task and within a few seconds the artificial limb will complete the job.
However, one must also consider the bioethics of life and death in Mr. Sullivan’s case. After Mr. Sullivan’s severe electrocution and horrific third degree electrical burns, he lost both arms. With both arms lost, Mr. Sullivan wondered how he could live a fulfilling life. The conventional myoelectic prosthetic arms caused excruciating pain for him, and the solutions were to either remove the myoelectric arms and replace them with passive, non-functional aesthetic arms, or to spend millions of dollars on a new surgery while inventing an entirely new bionic arm. This was the primary bioethics question, essentially, a question of life or death. Would Mr. Sullivan have to live the rest of his life with no arm function and wear passive aesthetic artificial limbs, the near equivalent of “death” to a severely handicapped person, or would he get the support of the entire Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, to regain arm function and become the first man with multi-million dollar thought controlled artificial limbs? The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago ethically chose the path of life by giving Mr. Sullivan two of the most advanced thought controlled artificial limbs. The surgery, in combination with the entire cost of designing, testing, and modifying the new artificial limbs cost $6 million dollars.
The other ethical question to ask is, “Why Mr. Sullivan? Why was he chosen to receive a new surgery and have two revolutionary thought controlled prosthetic arms costing a total of $6 million?” Mr. Sullivan’s high voltage power line accident occurred in May 2001, and he became a full patient of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago 7 weeks later. This was before the October 7, 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and well before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Therefore, the number of recent dual upper extremity amputee war veterans was virtually non-existent at that time. Due to this fact, the competition for this revolutionary surgery and technology was very low. Today, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago is funded with a $50 million grant from DARPA, to create more advanced thought controlled artificial limbs for amputees. As of March 19, 2008, there are 750 military amputees from Iraq and Afghanistan. The patient population has changed from patients who suffered a traumatic accident to amputee war veterans in their early twenties. In summary, the demand for revolutionary thought controlled prosthetic limbs is greater than ever and the advances will continue to create new milestones in biomedical engineering.