Helping Third World Amputees - 15 Year Old Da Vinci Award Winner Invents Artificial Leg Shell

Main Category: Bones / Orthopaedics
Article Date: 15 Aug 2007 - 1:00 PDT

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Fifteen-year-old Grayson Rosenberger, a freshman at Franklin Road Academy in Nashville, Tennessee, will be receiving the prestigious 2007 da Vinci Award for his application of a life-like surface for prosthetic legs. The idea also won the first place $10,000 prize in the Bubble Wrap® Competition for Young Inventors.

The da Vinci Awards®, honors outstanding engineering achievements in design process, product design and applied research relative to accessibility and universal design issues. This year the presenting sponsor is General Motors and OnStar President Chet Huber serves as Leadership Chairman.

Grayson's idea of a cost-effective, cosmetic shell for artificial legs disguises the prosthetic limb and creates the appearance of muscle tone. Wrapping the prosthetic with Bubble Wrap and packing tape and molding it with a heat gun mimics the shape of a real leg and minimizes the stigma facing amputees in third world countries. Lightweight and inexpensive, it costs only $15.00 as compared to $1,000 a similar prosthetic might cost in the United States.

The inspiration came from his mother, a double amputee who lost both legs in a car accident 25 years ago. Grayson's parents run the Christian-based charity, "Standing with Hope", which provides prosthetic legs to people in Ghana. Grayson recently traveled to Ghana to deliver a specially made prosthetic leg to a 15 year-old boy who lost his leg in an accident. The youth, unfortunately, died from Malaria before Grayson could meet him.

"Grayson not only invented the cost-effective cosmetic skin covering for artificial legs but worked with the government of Ghana training workers to make the limbs," his father explains. "Grayson came up with something that will change people's lives."

Looking to the future, Grayson says, "I'd like to go to West Point, possibly the Air Force or Naval Academy, major in mechanical engineering and serve my country."

The 2007 da Vinci Awards will be presented at a gala event Friday, September 28, at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Dearborn, MI, featuring a cocktail reception, gourmet dinner and awards program. Funds raised through these awards support the National MS Society in their continuing efforts to aid those affected by multiple sclerosis. Sponsorships and individual contributions are welcome. For details, please visit http://www.davinciawards.com

MS stops people from moving. The National MS Society exists to make sure it doesn't. We help each person address the challenges of living with MS through our 50 state network chapters. Proceeds from the da Vinci Awards have totaled more than $1.7 million and benefit the National MS Society Michigan Chapter. The Society is dedicated to achieving a world free of MS. We are people who want to do something about MS now. Join the movement at http://www.nationalmssociety.org