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The New Age of Bionics

What happens to you when you find yourself in a do or die situation?

Hugh Herr was in that position as a teenager, barely making it out alive while doing something he loved and excelled at, a savant at his young age. But he didn’t make it out unscathed, he lost both of his legs below the knee.

What would you do? At that young age would you have given up, abandoned your dreams, or hid from life?

Would you believe that this situation inspired Hugh to become a creator, inventor and innovator in the prosthetic world?

He went from a kid set on rising to the top as a professional climber, to figuring out how to navigate life AND climbing again as a bilateral below knee amputee with prosthesis he created!

He changed his path to one of college and higher education. Getting his masters and doctorate degrees from Harvard and MIT, and is currently a professor at the MIT Media Lab and co-leads the Yang Center for Bionics at MIT.

He is known for creating bionic limbs that emulate the movement of natural limbs and has been called the “Leader of the Bionic Age” by Time Magazine.

He has TED talks, authored/co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts and patents, and most recently Hugh and his research group invented the Agonist-Antagonist Myoneural Interface, which is a surgical procedure for limb amputation that allows the person with limb loss to control their synthetic limb with thought.

His research and studies are beyond amazing! The ideas and possibilities to come for those of us with limb loss from what he is inventing are going to be incredible and will make losing a limb less traumatic and more doable with the hope of what we will be capable of accomplishing with such high-tech and realistic bionics.

The age of bionics is growing by leaps and bounds and this past December 2023, I was blessed with the opportunity to work in the MIT Media Lab, meet Hugh, and participate in the current studies with several PhD students. I was blown away, to say the least, by what they are working on and what will be out on the market in the not too distant future. We are going to be seeing more stable, more controllable, and more comfortable fitting prosthesis which will give us our lives back and with more meaning.

So, yea, the first time I get to meet Hugh I look like this! Strapped in and ready to do research for the greater good!

This week, as we close Limb Loss/Limb Difference Awareness Month with my 4th and final interview with such an important innovator, as Hugh Herr, the pioneer of our bionic age, you do NOT want to miss what he shares about what is up and coming in the world of prosthesis and bionics.

Join me and Hugh Herr for this incredible interview!

Please share today’s podcast to bring hope and excitement for what’s to come to those in our amputee community.

Again, thank you, Hugh, for giving me the time to talk with you, pick your brain, and for your genius and creativity in helping us gain back our independence and ability to move smoothly despite our limb loss. I am truly inspired and excited for the future.

I hope you all enjoy today’s podcast and as always,

Be Healthy,

Be Happy,

Be YOU!!!

Much love,

John, Me and Tony-PhD students from MIT that were in charge of the study.

You can watch the NOVA production of Hugh Herr’s life: NOVA “Augmented” HERE