Biomechanics used specifically to help injured soldiers

You are a soldier in the midst of battle, rifle in hand. Gunshots and explosions sound through the air, and debris hits your face. People scream to you and you reply with i’m ok. After a second though, you feel a sharp pain from just below your elbow. Going to feel the wound you feel nothing. Upon looking, you are missing your arm. Once the battle is done you receive medical attention, get sent home, and discharged. Once you get home though, your life is now changed forever. With the help that bionics can provide, this is a story we will never have to hear again.

Biomechatronics, or bionics, is the scientific field that brings together things such as hydraulics, computing, medicine, and biotechnology. These are then applied to the human body. I've spent the better part of a year looking into this area of science, and so I do know a deal about them, and how we can make a difference with them.

Now. The problem of which I bring forward, is how we should be allowing our military amputees to receive these life changing prosthetics. These are the people who risk their lives, for you, and for me. Some come home unscathed, some pay the ultimate sacrifice, but many more come back scared, and broken. they will likely never live a normal life again. The only help they receive is therapy. And yes they get a life of plastic and metal joints, but that just isn't enough. There are people who lose a limb from an infection gone wild that they knew they had but didn't care to have it checked, and they can get a bionics if they have the money, but a soldier. They aren't included. In fact. The USA has a project specifically for their army amputees and we don't anything. Nothing major, and very little that's minor.

This is a big issue in my eyes, as it shows just little we as a country don't really care. And the solution is simple, but not at the same time.

So rather than tell you my solution and why it will work, I'm going to tell you my solution, and how we make it work.

Now. The solution is quite simply to provide our veterans the opportunity at the least, to get these. Free, and minimally invasive. To start, we need to get their input, here their stories and make them an arm for them. Or a leg. Or maybe both. They risked their lives and come back home ruined. Next, we need to do everything we can to advance the technology to a point where every soldier is able to easily get what It is they are missing. Many people though would say it's wrong. Wrong to do what I suggest. But those arguments revolve around religious beliefs and related to them possibly enhancing sports players abilities. Of course these two opinions are valid, though a runner does not truly benefit if he or she lost their leg.

So at this point I'd like to share to you two stories. A man named Les baugh had a double arm amputation, through, his shoulders. After months and months of surgery, he was able to move objects again. Through the use of bionics he can go each day without assistance. They work just like anybody else arms, yours or mine. This is amazing on its own. His story can be found on the Nova website from the Australian academy of science, in a section on bionics reviewed by Dr Emily Ridgewell in 2016. The next is on a UK site, independent and written by Charlie Cooper in 2015. Three Austrian men had injured their hands, and we're unable to use them anymore. They willingly decided to undergo surgery which involved removing their damaged hands, placing small bits of thigh muscles in their arm, and a sensor as well. They now have functioning hands which are no different then the real thing. Les got his arms in 2014. The Austrian men got their hands in 2015.

We can already give our amputees what they lost. It's just a matter of when. And we can start by searching what we can, find ways to donate to research, try and contact the people at Universities and get a snowball rolling. Soon enough, we'll have changed thousands of lives for the better.

Thank you everyone for lending your ear.