I was born and raised in Sierra Leone, a small and very beautiful country in West Africa, a country rich both in physical resources and creative talent.
Rodil sem se in odraščal v Sierri Leone, v majhni in čudoviti državi v Zahodni Afriki, v državi, bogati tako z materialnimi viri kot s kreativnim talentom.
However, Sierra Leone is infamous for a decade-long rebel war in the '90s when entire villages were burnt down. An estimated 8,000 men, women and children had their arms and legs amputated during this time. As my family and I ran for safety when I was about 12 from one of those attacks, I resolved that I would do everything I could to ensure that my own children would not go through the same experiences we had. They would, in fact, be part of a Sierra Leone where war and amputation were no longer a strategy for gaining power.
Vendar pa je Sierra Leone razvpita zavoljo desetletne uporniške vojne v 90-ih, ko so bile celotne vasi požgane. Po ocenah so 8000-im možem, ženam in otrokom v tem času amputirali roke ali noge. Ko sem s svojo družino bežal na varno, star približno 12 let, pred enim od teh napadov, sem dal zaobljubo, da bom naredil vse, kar bo v moji moči, da poskrbim, da mojim otrokom ne bo potrebno izkusiti tega, kar je doletelo nas. Oni bodo zares del Sierre Leone, ko vojna in amputacije ne bodo več del strategije za pridobivanje moči.
As I watched people who I knew, loved ones, recover from this devastation, one thing that deeply troubled me was that many of the amputees in the country would not use their prostheses. The reason, I would come to find out, was that their prosthetic sockets were painful because they did not fit well. The prosthetic socket is the part in which the amputee inserts their residual limb, and which connects to the prosthetic ankle. Even in the developed world, it takes a period of three weeks to often years for a patient to get a comfortable socket, if ever. Prosthetists still use conventional processes like molding and casting to create single-material prosthetic sockets. Such sockets often leave intolerable amounts of pressure on the limbs of the patient, leaving them with pressure sores and blisters. It does not matter how powerful your prosthetic ankle is. If your prosthetic socket is uncomfortable, you will not use your leg, and that is just simply unacceptable in our age.
Ko sem gledal znance, najdražje, kako so si opomogli od opustošenja, me je globoko vznemirjalo to, da mnogi od amputirancev v državi niso uporabljali svojih protez. Razlog – sem izvedel – je bil v ležiščih za njihove proteze, ki so povzročala bolečine, ker se niso dobro prilegala. Ležišče protoze je tisti del, kamor amputiranec vstavi krn preostalega uda in ki je povezan z umetnim gležnjem. Celo v razvitem svetu traja od treh tednov dalje, včasih več let, da pacient dobi udobno ležišče, če sploh. Protetiki še vedno uporabljajo klasične postopke, kot je oblikovanje kalupa in ulivanje, da izdelajo ležišče proteze iz enega materiala. Taka ležišča pogosto pomenijo nevzdržen pritisk na pacientove ude, kar povzroča razjede zaradi pritiska in žulje. Ni pomembno, kako močan je gleženj vaše proteze. Če je njeno ležišče neudobno, noge ne boste uporabljali in to je v današnjih časih enostavno nesprejemljivo.
So one day, when I met professor Hugh Herr about two and a half years ago, and he asked me if I knew how to solve this problem, I said, "No, not yet, but I would love to figure it out." And so, for my Ph.D. at the MIT Media Lab, I designed custom prosthetic sockets quickly and cheaply that are more comfortable than conventional prostheses. I used magnetic resonance imaging to capture the actual shape of the patient's anatomy, then use finite element modeling to better predict the internal stresses and strains on the normal forces, and then create a prosthetic socket for manufacture. We use a 3D printer to create a multi-material prosthetic socket which relieves pressure where needed on the anatomy of the patient. In short, we're using data to make novel sockets quickly and cheaply. In a recent trial we just wrapped up at the Media Lab, one of our patients, a U.S. veteran who has been an amputee for about 20 years and worn dozens of legs, said of one of our printed parts, "It's so soft, it's like walking on pillows, and it's effing sexy." (Laughter)
Tako sem nekega dne srečal profesorja Hugh-a Herr-a pred približno dvema letoma in pol in me je vprašal, ali vem, kako rešiti ta problem, sem mu odgovoril: "Ne, ne še, vendar bi rad to ugotovil." In tako sem za svoj doktorat na MIT Media Labu oblikoval ležišča za proteze po meri, primerna za hitro in poceni izdelavo, ki so bolj udobna od klasičnih protez. Uporabil sem slikanje z magnetno resonanco za zajem dejanske oblike pacientove anatomije, nakar sem uporabil metodo končnih elementov za boljšo napoved tlakov in deformacij v notranjosti pri običajnih silah. In nato pripravil ležišče proteze za izdelavo. S 3D tiskalnikom izdelamo ležišče proteze iz večih materialov, kar razbremeni pritisk, kjer je to potrebno glede na anatomijo pacienta. Skratka, z uporabo podatkov lahko hitro in poceni naredimo nova ležišča. V nedavni, pravkar končani raziskavi, v Media Labu je eden od našil pacientov, veteran ZDA, ki je amputiranec približno 20 let in je nosil na ducate nog, komentiral enega od natisnjenih kosov: "Tako je mehak, kot da bi hodil po blazinah; in jebe*ti, kako je seksi." (Smeh)
Disability in our age should not prevent anyone from living meaningful lives. My hope and desire is that the tools and processes we develop in our research group can be used to bring highly functional prostheses to those who need them. For me, a place to begin healing the souls of those affected by war and disease is by creating comfortable and affordable interfaces for their bodies. Whether it's in Sierra Leone or in Boston, I hope this not only restores but indeed transforms their sense of human potential.
Invalidnost v našem času ne bi smela nikomur preprečiti živeti polnega življenja. Upam in želim si, da bi orodja in postopki, ki jih razvija naša raziskovalna skupina, služila temu, da bi te visoko funkcionalne proteze prišle v roke tistim, ki jih potrebujejo. Sam lahko začnem celiti rane prizadetim v vojni in zaradi bolezni z izdelavo udobnih in dostopnih vmesnikov za njihovo telo. Bodisi v Sierri Leone bodisi v Bostonu, upam, da to ne le povrne funkcije, temveč temeljito preoblikuje njihov občutek za človeški potencial.
Thank you very much.
Najlepša hvala.
(Applause)
(Aplavz)