Nathan Revadigar
Mr. Ippolito
Biology
3/14/17
The article “Prosthetic Hand Restores Touch, Heals Phantom Pain” By Tanya Lewis was a well written article with a few down sides. The author of the article made a heading which catches the eye. As I, have a personal connection with amputations and prosthetics since my grandfather had an amputation and has a fake leg so I was tempted to see what was going on. Throughout the article, the research and reference to the subject was mainly referred to two test subjects, a group of surgeons, and one scientist. This information is from only one company, there is proof to announce to the world saying that you can bring back sense to the amputated arm and/or limb. The data collected was only about how good the product was and that according to the article, there was not a single mention about how there might be side effects or that something bad will happen. Throughout the whole article, there weren’t any step by step procedures of how they were able to make the product.
Basically this article was about the ability to have feeling when you add a prosthetic body part. When an amputation occurs, you lose all sensation in the area of the surgery. As of late, there has been new light that has showed that with special equipment you can bring back these feelings. For example, the new prosthetics gave the people feelings where if they held an item it would feel the same if they held it in the normal hand or the same for texture. One of the many things that really ruin a person is the knowledge that they lost the feeling in their arm to bring it back is a beautiful thing. After an amputation has occurred there have been reports of phantom pains. Phantom pains are pains that are felt after the surgery is done of the preexisting problem and any new ones around the area. With the development of these new prosthetics these scientists have found that the phantom pains go away.
The author of the article actually works for the company creating this project. She has been working for the company for a year now and specializes in writing stories about neuroscience. Lewis included one passage in the article where Tony says, “We don't believe the way we're stimulating the nerves is exactly natural, but if there's something close, the brain likes to interpret it as something it knows.” This shows that the scientists don’t know a 100% what's happening to the body and how it reacts to the new things that are getting attached. The author did a good job of answering most of the big questions to help readers, but she didn’t include some questions like how much it will cost, or how durable it is, or if it comes in contact with water, is your body in danger of getting a shock? These were some important questions that would ensure safety to people, and safety comes first. the author doesn’t explain the research that was put together in order for this to be successful. Going back to the quote in the previous paragraph, it may cause problems if the scientists don’t know what is happening when the complete the operation.
At the end of the article, the conclusion was mediocre. By the end of the article, the author describes how the subject said that there was almost no pain in his arm after the new change and the conclusion is in the category while wrapping up the sub-topic and the whole article. When the conclusion was written, I was convinced that the new advancement in prosthetics was going to help future people and that with only a few more years of finishing work, they can create a product that can sense many more textures and that too technology will help them cruise along. One main thing that convinced me that this was real was that there was a video showing a test subject name the certain texture against the amputated hand while it was wired to his arm.
Citation
Prosthetic Hand Restores Touch, Heals Phantom Pain." Fox News. FOX News Network, n.d.
1Web. 13 Mar. 2017.
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/10/09/prosthetic-hand-restores-touch-heals-phantom-pain
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