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June 17, 2015Customer Referral Program
June 29, 2015Case Study
California Girl Born with No Right-Hand Gets Surprise Prosthetic
Ten-year-old Anni Emmert of California, who was born with no right hand, got the surprise of a lifetime when she visited the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida to meet and feed Winter, the dolphin, who was the inspiration for the Dolphin Tale movies. Anni felt she could relate to Winter, as the movies are based on a story about a dolphin who lost her tail when she was three months old when it got tangled in a crab trap. Little did Anni know, her trip to see Winter came with a surprise from Limbitless Solutions and the kindness of students at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Anni not only got to meet and feed Winter, but was introduced to her new aquatic friend by Cozi Zuehlsdorff, the star of the Dolphin Tale movies. The ultimate surprise came when Anni was prompted to reach into a cooler to retrieve more snacks to feed Winter and instead found her brand new, custom-designed, prosthetic arm!
Even Good Morning America played along in the surprise. Click here to see more details and GMA’s touching video coverage of the project.
The University of Central Florida also covered the story (available here). According to their article, “Limbitless Solutions, based at UCF, creates custom 3-D printed arms for children in the students’ spare time. The UCF team began in July when Manero, an aerospace engineering graduate student and Fulbright Scholar, learned about a Central Florida family in need. He put together a group of friends and classmates who designed and delivered a functioning 3-D printed arm in eight weeks at a cost of $350.”
The students used 3-D printers created and donated by Stratasys to produce interchangeable parts that they will adjust and reprint as Anni gets older. We are proud here at Prototyping Solutions to say that we had the privilege, in conjunction with our Educational Division; Technical Training Aids, of donating both time and service to the installation of the printers and even donated a maintenance contract on the printers.