Self-taught dad develops prosthetic for amputee son

Ben Ryan’s son Sol was born in March 2015 with an undetected clot in his upper left arm. Following surgery where most of Sol’s arm was removed, Ben realised it would be a number of years before his son was fitted with an electric prosthetic via the usual channels.

“After Sol was discharged, we learned that no further intervention would be offered through the NHS until he was at least a year old,” Ryan said. “It was likely to be three years before he could be fitted for an electric device. I thought I could do better than this for my son.”

Ryan’s background in psychology led him to encourage Sol to be active with both limbs as early as possible. He introduced homemade foam arms just five weeks after his son’s birth, with Sol using the rudimentary prosthetic in play almost instantly.

“By encouraging him to use both arms during this period of early brain development, we believed Sol would become more likely to adopt prosthetics later on,” he explained.