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This woman made a prosthetic limb from Lego

The Danish building blocks are endelssly versatile.

 

Kevin Morris

IRL

Posted on Jul 2, 2013   Updated on Jun 1, 2021, 12:18 pm CDT

You can add “prosthetic limb” to the list of awesome things you can make with Lego.

Amputee Christina Stephens runs a weekly video series on YouTube focused on issues related to amputees—everything from stump massage techniques to getting a tattoo. But in her latest episode she has a little fun, using the versatile Danish building blocks to construct a limb from the knee down to a foot. Granted, the Lego limb doesn’t exactly prove to be the most mobile, or durable, snapping apart when Stephens puts just the smallest amount of pressure on it. Still, this might be the coolest use of Lego since a bunch of kids made a to-scale model of the entirety of Japan. And the idea of a self-made limb conjures images of the near future, when amputees may be able to use 3-D printers to manufacture limbs at home.

Correction: The plural form of Lego is not Legos, as it appeared in the original version of this story. It’s Lego. We regret the error. 

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*First Published: Jul 2, 2013, 11:44 am CDT