Disability Redefined with Lego Prosthetic Arm

When David Aguilar was a kid, he was surrounded by toys, from the little ones found inside Kinder Surprise chocolate eggs to the Transformers robots that he could change into cars on his own without any guidance. Above anything, he cherished Lego. “You can build anything with Lego,” he asserts. “With just the pieces, you can construct anything you desire.”   

At five years old, he constructed his first Titanic model with them. Four years later, “one day in his room,” he “assembled an arm,” according to his father, Ferran. “A wire, a key chain, duct tape, robot parts, and the most traditional Lego pieces” were used in its construction. 

An arm—why? Aguilar, an Andorran, was born without a right forearm due to Poland syndrome, an uncommon condition. He claims that it didn’t limit his inventiveness when he was younger since “I always loved to play with my hands even though I was missing one.” David’s father continues, saying that when he was five years old, they noticed their son had an inherent talent, which inspired him and his wife, Nathalie, to help him further develop his skills.

After hearing that Lego was the greatest toy for him to play with, Nathalie started purchasing it for him. According to Ferran, “he would use his head and his little hand to develop a fine dexterity. “Lego is the most educational toy to which you can apply your creative abilities.” 

However, according to his father, Aguilar’s condition did cause him to endure some unpleasant school experiences, including “teasing, laughter, and even aggression.” Aguilar was going through a challenging time since he was different when he constructed his first prosthesis. I advised him to bring it to school to boost his self-esteem. Everyone was enthralled, he told us when he returned home, and that really aided David at the time. However, the bullying soon resumed. 

He continued to construct, and when he was just 17 years old, he made the first prosthetic Lego arm in history, complete with fingers, a motor, and a pressure sensor. Mk-I, as Aguilar dubbed it, broke the Guinness World Record and became widely popular on social media. He used parts from a Lego Technic Air Race Jet kit to make the second version, the Mk-II.  

He admits that at first, he was hesitant to show people his arm, but these days he goes to places like discos and dances a lot since he loves to dance. Seeing that no one was discriminating against me in that kind of environment has been helpful to me. People stopped making fun of me when I started to feel good about myself since it didn’t work. 

Meanwhile, he started Hand Solo to support groups that support those with impairments and to combat the stigma associated with what Aguilar likes to regard as “diffability.” One of the main objectives is to significantly reduce the cost of prostheses. One benefit of utilizing Lego is its relatively low cost; he only needed to purchase €15 worth of blocks to construct two prosthetic arms for Beknur Zhanibekuly, an eight-year-old whose mother contacted them from their home in Strasbourg, France.

Beknur can use one of them to pick objects up (he can control the arm’s pincer-like grabber by wrapping a rope around his foot) and the other to operate a tablet. “Should I do it for Beknur?” “Why not for any other boy or girl who’s missing an arm, a leg, or a foot?” queries Aguilar. Together with his father, Aguilar has recently penned a memoir titled Piece by Piece. It was released in Spanish last year, and an English translation is on the way. 

Reference  

The Irish Times, “David Aguilar was born without an arm. So, he built one from Lego — and then set a Guinness World Record” https://www.irishtimes.com/life-style/people/2022/08/22/david-aguilar-was-born-without-an-arm-so-he-built-himself-one-from-lego-and-then-set-a-guinness-world-record/.