Rida was eight when she climbed atop a desk at her home in Bajaur to make use of it as a vantage level whereas enjoying with different youngsters. This was when she by chance touched some uninsulated electrical

wires hanging from the wall. The burns from the electrocution have been so dangerous that the kid’s proper arm needed to be amputated from the elbow.

The accident was earth-shattering for her mother and father as nicely; they knew that the lack of a limb would tremendously restrict their youngster’s prospects in life. The woman had been maimed and was handicapped for all times.

Rida’s father, Zair Ali Khan, knew of 1 different youngster within the village who was additionally lacking an arm. One day, after providing Friday prayers on the native mosque, Zair Ali observed the opposite child working round, however ostensibly with each arms. There gave the impression to be nothing fallacious with him anymore.

He appeared round for the boy’s father and caught up with him to quiz him about his son’s newfound limb. This is when he discovered a few Karachi-based firm referred to as Bioniks and their work with prosthetic arms. Zair was fast to get the contact particulars of those obvious miracle staff.

A Pakistani firm that manufactures prosthetic arms is giving new hope to those that have misplaced their limbs on account of illness, trauma or a situation at delivery

The subsequent step for him was to name Bioniks to grasp their work and in addition clarify his daughter’s state of affairs. Upon realising that they might assist his little woman, he determined to make the roughly 1,600-km journey — along with his daughter in tow — from his village within the nation’s north to the southern metropolis the place the corporate is positioned.

It was right here that Rida was fitted with a prosthetic arm, and with none surgical procedure being concerned. When she began shifting her new arm, opening and shutting her hand to grip little toys, plastic blocks and buckets with it, the daddy stood watching from behind, brimming with pleasure. Rida had discovered her misplaced arm once more.

UNUSUAL BEGINNINGS

Bioniks was based in 2016 by two buddies, Ovais Hussain Qureshi and Anas Niaz, who beforehand supplied electromechanical product designing providers. The choice to begin the corporate was spurred by the case of a five-year-old youngster, Mir Baiyaan Baloch, from Turbat in Balochistan, who had been born with out an arm.

Baiyaan’s father, who labored on the State Bank of Pakistan in Karachi and was accustomed to Bioniks’ merchandise and designs, approached them along with his son’s request for a bionic arm.

“That was the first time we entered this domain,” says Ovais, who’s Bioniks’ chief govt officer (CEO).

During the analysis and improvement part, continues Ovais, they came upon concerning the lack of sustainable options for synthetic limbs. “There used to be prosthetics — we have also seen them in stories and comics, where a pirate wore a hook, but there was no sustainable solution available.”

Earlier, the sustainable answer was only a prosthetic you wore, possibly with a harness, in line with the younger CEO. “But there was no solution to the problem, because it was just cosmetic. There was no grip. You couldn’t even bring a glass of water to your lips with it,” Ovais factors out.

Other than providing minimal motion and missing a correct grip, these synthetic limbs have been usually clunky and costly. “[The old type of prosthetic] was very heavy to wear seven days a week or even for 10 hours a day,” says Ovais, who claims his firm provides a lighter, higher answer. “The prosthetics made by Bioniks are made of [lightweight] carbon fibre and aircraft aluminium. Using these, we have designed and developed many different prosthetics since 2016.”

Currently, Bioniks provides a fundamental prosthetic arm, their flagship module referred to as Zindagi 2.0. “Our prosthetic arm can move and the hand has a grip,” says a beaming Ovais, earlier than including that the corporate’s purchasers embrace individuals in Pakistan in addition to in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Bioniks was based in 2016 by two buddies, Ovais Hussain Qureshi and Anas Niaz, who beforehand supplied electromechanical product designing providers. The choice to begin the corporate was spurred by the case of a five-year-old youngster, Mir Baiyaan Baloch, from Turbat in Balochistan, who had been born with out an arm.

SCIENCE, SENSORS AND SERVICE

Bioniks’ prosthetic limbs contain sensors, which choose up {the electrical} impulses from the physique’s nerves, that are also called the muscle nerve indicators, and translate that into motion within the palms. This is why individuals who have had arms amputated discover it comparatively simpler to regulate to the prosthetic limb. Children who’re born with out arms want a while to get used to the factitious limbs, as they haven’t developed sure motor expertise and sensory perceptions related to their use.

For issues of performance, the Bioniks staff have discovered an equally adept answer, with its Zindagi 2.0 prosthetic being backed by a mobile-based software for restore and upkeep. In case any prosthetic consumer outdoors Karachi has any issues along with his arm, they don’t must ship it again. They solely require connecting the prosthetic to the cell software and it may be recalibrated remotely to resolve the problem, says Ovais.

He factors out that they’ve two purchasers in Jeddah — a 55-year-old man and a six-year-old woman. If there may be any problem with their prosthetic limbs, they don’t should journey to Pakistan, says Ovais. “Instead, they can use the app and opt for online troubleshooting to resolve the problem.”

An individual with the app might help different customers close to her or him as nicely, he suggests. “This is also our way of cutting down on carbon emissions, as they don’t need to come back to us for repairs and maintenance.”

For Ovais, the imaginative and prescient behind Bioniks is to make the know-how accessible not solely in Pakistan however for others outdoors the nation. “So many people are impressed and inspired by things from the West, but we have this technology right here which also uses artificial intelligence [AI] to help people use their arms,” says Ovais.

He says his firm has racked up a number of achievements in a short while, together with serving one four-year-old who’s the “youngest person in the world to be fitted with a bionic arm.”

Others to learn from their providers embrace purchasers whose arms have been amputated on the shoulder, with the prosthetic fitted, with out surgical procedure, within the shoulder socket. “If they had opted for a surgery abroad, it would cost as much as 200,000 dollars for the targetted muscular surgery and the robotic arm,” provides Ovais. “With our intergenerational AI, we can provide the bionic arm for 58,000 dollars, and without any surgical procedure.”

A HAPPY COHORT

Recently, Bioniks welcomed 18 youngsters from completely different cities throughout Pakistan to be fitted with prosthetic arms. Rida was one among them. Alongside her was Waqas, one other child from a village additionally in Bajaur, who misplaced his arm to a landmine blast. He had picked up what he thought was a toy, just for it to blow up in his tiny palms. Next to them was one other woman from the identical district, with an eerily related story.

As Waqas went by the becoming and tried his new prosthetic arm, his face mirrored equal elements pleasure and resolve. He was decided to study the mechanics of his new limb whereas attempting to make it work in line with his wants. As he practised along with his new arm, the arm additionally was studying to simply accept its new host, due to the AI part concerned.

Anas Niaz, who’s the organisation’s co-founder and holds the designation of chief ‘visionary’ officer, calls word-of-mouth advertising their best supply of purchasers. “It is just like Rida’s father finding us after hearing about us, and then sharing that information with others in the area, or even bringing them along,” says Anas.

A bit of woman from Karachi, round 4, was amongst these attempting her new prosthetic arm, however she was taking a while getting used to it. Every at times, she would resort to utilizing her good arm as a substitute of the prosthetic one and wanted to be reminded to make use of it.

“It is because she was born without one arm. She has never used her motor skills for that arm,” says Anas. “It can be frustrating for the child, as it takes longer than an amputee to learn how to use the arm — through muscle and nerve coordination — by those who have never experienced the sensation. They have to go through the learning curve, but they are children and eventually adapt to it,” he provides.

Ovais says that they as soon as bought a child who was born with out each arms. “We had him fitted with two new arms and then he returned one day with one of them broken. He said that he was showing off before his mother, demonstrating to her how he can climb a tree. But then he fell and broke one arm,” he continues.

“He came back apologising, crying that he will never dare to do such a thing again. But we told him to carry on, as we would try to strengthen his new arm further.”

EVOLVING NEEDS

When requested if the factitious limbs supplied to youngsters would want altering because the youngster grows, the Bioniks staff mentioned they didn’t want to alter the scale of the factitious limb, solely the realm that connects to the arm is broadened for a neater match. “Still, the global standard for one prosthetic limb is three to five years,” Anas provides.

He additionally says that youngsters want a sturdy and light-weight product or they might get irritated. “A child’s prosthetic arm weighs around 300 grammes and an adult around 700 grammes. Your own human arm weighs around 1.4 kilogrammes,” he says.

Dr Ayesha Zulfiqar, who’s Bioniks’ chief medical officer, collects the medical histories of these fitted with prosthetic arms. She additionally counsels the recipients as “there are many cases where an amputee’s world changes after an accident.”

One such child is 16-year-old Jafar Ali from Sadiqabad, who misplaced his left arm. Jafar was reducing grass for his household’s animals in a chafing machine, when the blade additionally severed his arm by mistake. That was some 4 years in the past. It turned his world turned the other way up. He stopped going to high school, too.

He just lately came upon about Bioniks from social media and he was quickly asking them if they might additionally assist him. “I want to pick up from where I left off at the time of my accident. I want to resume my education,” says Jafar.

Dr Ayesha says this problem was confronted by amputees throughout the age spectrum. “Happily married women who may lose a limb in an accident can get divorced. On the other hand, someone’s marriage prospects may also improve after putting on a prosthetic limb,” she says.

“Sadly, we have also seen cases where the parents of young amputees have left their children at orphanages,” she provides.

Sometimes, says Dr Ayesha, amputees will be seen as a burden by households which have restricted monetary sources. “With a prosthetic limb, they can get jobs.”

With synthetic limbs, tragic outcomes will be prevented. She cited the case of a younger shopper who rides each day on his bicycle to a tyre restore store the place he works. “We also have one client who is now a rider for an online food delivery service. He is no longer a burden on his family after getting his prosthetic arm,” Dr Ayesha factors out.

However, Bioniks serves solely a sliver of the inhabitants that wants synthetic limbs. “We have so many congenital deformities in Pakistan,” says Anas. “According to an Aga Khan University Hospital report, some 10 or 11 children are born each day without limbs.”

So far, says Anas, Bioniks has supplied 650 individuals, together with 53 victims of battle, with prosthetic limbs.

The state of affairs is equally bleak globally, with one World Health Organisation report from 2017 estimating there have been “between 35-40 million people in need of prosthetics with only 5-15 percent having access” to them. The state of affairs is skewed additional in creating nations, the place the vast majority of these in want of synthetic limbs are typically from low-income teams.

This can be the expertise at Bioniks, the place a lot of its purchasers are from small cities and villages, usually barely in a position to afford the journey to Karachi.

It helps that Bioniks is a social enterprise. The founders say they supply the prosthetic arm free-of-charge if the shopper can not afford it. But this limits their capability to serve a bigger variety of purchasers, with round 5,000 mentioned to be on the ready listing.

“This is why we are looking for donors and sponsors. We are planning a campaign for Ramazan, with the aim to provide 500 bionic arms free of cost to deserving people in Pakistan,” says Anas.

Their long-term objective is to promote their choices at aggressive costs globally, and to make use of the proceeds to maintain and improve their social impression in Pakistan.

“That said, there are such countries like Pakistan where we will give our limbs at subsidised rates or even free of cost,” continues Anas. “Basically, those who cannot afford it, they can get it free of cost, and those who can afford, can purchase from us,” he concludes.

The author is a member of
employees. X: @HasanShazia

Published in Dawn, EOS, February twenty fifth, 2024