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'Hand Solo': The one-armed boy who built a Lego prosthesis

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Rosa Sulleiro and Julien Sengel, Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="2017 Guinness World record holder and 2020 Lego Masters France winner, Andorran university student David Aguilar, 22, affected by Poland syndrome, poses with his self-built prosthetic arm, made with Lego pieces, in Sant Cugat del Valles, near Barcelona on September 9, 2021. Pau Barrena, AFP" src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/tvpatrol/09/16/david-aguilar.jpg"/><figcaption>2017 Guinness World record holder and 2020 Lego Masters France winner, Andorran university student David Aguilar, 22, affected by Poland syndrome, poses with his self-built prosthetic arm, made with Lego pieces, in Sant Cugat del Valles, near Barcelona on September 9, 2021. Pau Barrena, AFP</figcaption></figure></div>David Aguilar was five when he first discovered Lego, entering a world where it didn&#x27;t matter he was missing his forearm, and four years later, he built his first prosthesis with it.Now on the verge of finishing a degree in bioengineering, he dreams of working to help other children who, like him, were born different. Aguilar was born without a right forearm as a result of Poland syndrome, a rare disorder which can cause severe abnormalities in the shoulder, arm or hand, but it has not stopped him from living his life. Now 22, this Andorran student -- who has been obsessed with robots since he was a child -- has little free time: aside from finishing his degree, he gives motivational speeches, has written a book and taken part in an innovation conference run by NASA.But getting here hasn&#x27;t been easy and his face hardens as he recalls the years when building things with Lego was his only refuge from bullying. &quot;When I was a teenager, I carried on playing with Lego because it was a way of escaping the bullying, it really helped me ignore all the jibes I had to put up with every day,&quot; he told AFP at his university residence near Barcelona.During his teens, he set up a YouTube channel calling himself &quot;Hand Solo&quot;, a play on the name of smuggler-pilot hero Han Solo from the early &quot;Star Wars&quot; films. Over the years, he fine-tuned his construction skills and by the age of 17, he had managed to create a fully-functioning Lego prosthetic that allowed him to do his first-ever pushups with two arms. Since then, he has further refined his technique, proudly showing off his latest version, the MK5, which has a much more sleek robotic look and long pale-blue &quot;fingers&quot; which are activated by muscles operating a motorized pulley.Long accustomed to life without his forearm, Aguilar doesn&#x27;t use a prosthesis every day but he knows that many people do, and that it can cost many thousands of euros for the newest models. &quot;Since I made that first prosthesis, I realized that I had the power to help other people. And when I looked in the mirror and saw myself with two arms, I thought that other people really might need that too,&quot; he said. <div>- Arming an 8-year-old - </div>After he was awarded the Guinness World Record for creating the first functional Lego prosthetic arm in 2017, news about Hand Solo&#x27;s wizardry quickly spread. Finding his story online earlier this year, Zaure Bektemissova decided to write him an email from her home in northeastern France.Her son Beknur, she wrote, was eight-years-old and had no arms. The doctors couldn&#x27;t make him a normal prosthesis and she was looking for help. &quot;Prosthetics are mostly standard, they are big and heavy, so for his spine it was not a good idea,&quot; she told AFP at her home in Strasbourg where the family has lived for two years since her husband took up a diplomatic post at the Kazakhstan consulate. Aguilar promised to try and at the end of August, Bektemissova and her son drove 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) to Andorra, a tiny principality in the Pyrenees mountains, sandwiched between Spain and France, to meet him and try out the new prosthesis he&#x27;d made. Made entirely of Lego, the lightweight device has a pincer-like grabble at the end which Beknur can control with a cord manipulated by his left foot. &quot;Now I can grab things with my hand, before I couldn&#x27;t,&quot; beams Beknur, throwing a ball to his brother. Having that extra bit of independence has really helped, his mum says.&quot;He can do a lot of things with it so his self-esteem is high now, compared to what was before,&quot; she smiles. And the experience has inspired Aguilar.&quot;If I did it for Beknur, why not for any other boy or girl who&#x27;s missing an arm or a leg or a foot?&quot; he says, his eyes alight with ideas. <figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1689430" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

David Aguilar was five when he first discovered Lego, entering a world where it didn't matter he was missing his forearm.

'Hand Solo': The one-armed boy who built a Lego prosthesis

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'Hand Solo': The one-armed boy who built a Lego prosthesis

Rosa Sulleiro and Julien Sengel,

Agence France-Presse

Published Sep 24, 2021 06:30 PM PHT

Read More:

Lego

prosthesis

David Aguilar

Poland syndrome

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