After This Baby Was Born With One Arm Over His Head, Doctors Gave His Dad Some Frightening News

after this baby was born with one arm over his head doctors gave his dad some frightening news [Music] [Applause] [Music] after this baby was born with one arm over his head doctors gave his dad some frightening news when doctors told ben ryan that his newborn son soul's arm was seriously injured he was understandably devastated in an instant he saw all the things that he imagined him doing doing together slip away but thanks to his innovative idea saul might be able to make his father's dream come true after all ben and his partner kate smith live on the island of anglesey in wales he worked as a psychology lecturer at a university while kate was a medical recruitment officer however in march 2015 everything changed after the birth of their first child their baby a boy was born on the day of a solar eclipse as a result his parents decided to name him soul cated problematic labor and soul was born with his left arm lifted above his head little soul consequently developed complications then when doctors detected a blood clot near his elbow surgeons had to amputate the lower arm and watch their son suffer this ordeal at an early stage had a profound effect on ben and kate seoul was our first baby so to be told he hadn't have his arm amputated at 10 days old was terrible we were in a very black place ben told the daily mail in march 2017 i kept thinking he'd never be able to box or play guitar all the things i'd done as a kid his parents were adamant that soul's disability wouldn't stop him from doing anything however their son wouldn't be able to get a functional prosthetic arm until he was a year old and for his dad that simply wasn't good enough so ben started building his son a prosthetic arm when soul was a mere five weeks old at the time he used any materials he had at hand including sponge and cotton wool but it seemed the doting dad knew exactly what he was doing by encouraging him to use both arms during this period of early brain development we believe saul would become more likely to adopt prosthetics later on and told the daily post in march 2017 he added current prosthetic arm technology for infants dates back to the victorian era in many cases they're ugly and often rejected early on ben was determined that that wouldn't happen to seoul so from that moment on designing the perfect arm for his son became his number one focus he even quit his job as a lecturer to give the task his full attention ben threw himself into his research i spent a lot of time looking into prosthetics for babies and found a clear pattern those who were not offered a functioning hand until after two years of age tend to not wear them at all he later wrote on indiegogo i wanted to do better for saul so with a little help from his dad and brother ben began working on a prototype using copper piping and plumbing paraphernalia he fashioned a model on his dining table then he approached nearby bangor university for help the university had all the resources he needed including a state-of-the-art scanner and 3d printers and luckily for him the staff were keen to help with their guidance ben taught himself how to use expert design programs to make his dream a reality in the end it was the way that spiders controlled their legs via hydraulics that inspired ben's design so he created his bionic arm with a liquid pad which the sole could operate using his elbow the resulting pressure would push fluid down the arm to operate a gripping lever however ben's designs proved hard to perfect over the next year he went through dozens of prototypes and his commitment to his cause soon left him without any funds to draw on as a result ben turned to a crowdfunding site to help him complete his project yes the lecturer turned designer went to india gogo to ask for an investment of 162.00 and his stated aim was to take his finished design to a wider market we made great progress and produced our first working prototype fitted to our founder benzone's sunreader statement on the crowdfunding site we've seen the impact it has on his development now we need support to fully manufacture this prototype into a final product and make it available to our young customers throughout the world and although ben is now keen to help more children his primary focus throughout the project has been his son for me the driving force has always been sold he's nearly two now and loves reading books but even doing something as simple as turning a page is difficult because the book slides off his knee he told the daily mail having a bionic arm will allow him to grip the book it's that simple been added at the moment he wears my prototype occasionally i won't let him wear it all the time until we put it through all the correct medical trials and tests but i know this prosthetic has the potential to revolutionize the lives of millions of children and babies born without limbs in the future the next steps for ben are to recruit more experts to his team find a base for his enterprise and conduct clinical trials he's also working with autodesk a software company that has made prosthetic limbs for paralympic athletes autodesk designer pulso he has described ben's work as amazing and inspiring it can also be said that ben is simply a father determined to give his son the best possible start in life thanks to his technology his child will hopefully be able to grasp any dream he has insight into and in turn he will hopefully help a whole new generation of children like soul achieve theirs too