Only one person in the world has had this surgery — and he’s an Ability Hand user

After he was hit by a distracted driver in May 2022, Shaun Melendy had his left hand amputated at the scene. He then went through 10 surgeries in three weeks to repair his spine, hips, legs, ankles, and feet at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

One of those surgeries was what is known as an agonist-antagonist myoneural interface (AMI) amputation. Amputation surgeries typically leave patients with much less fine-motor control in their residual limb and without the ability to perceive where their limb is without looking at it. With an AMI amputation, however, the patient maintains much of the signaling between their brain and the muscles in their residual limb, which is severed during traditional amputation surgeries.

Shaun is part of a clinical trial that is a collaboration between Brigham and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studying the AMI procedure that they developed. It is led by Brigham’s Dr. Matthew Carty and Dr. Hugh Herr of MIT’s Center for Extreme Bionics. 

Since 2018, four patients have undergone AMI surgery on their upper limbs. Shaun is the first to have the surgery following a traumatic amputation. AMI surgeries could make it easier for people to use prosthetic limbs. In Shaun’s case, that means a PSYONIC Ability Hand. 

“I’m not one to sit still. I love being outdoors. I surf, swim and race kayaks. I cut firewood. I climb trees. I do sprint triathlons. Knowing I do all these things, I thought I would be more upset. But I just knew that I was going to be able to truck forward and figure out what the next step is,” he told Brigham, not long after his surgeries. 

After a week with his Ability Hand, Shaun was indeed cutting firewood – with a chainsaw – and carving the Thanksgiving turkey – not with a chainsaw, though he did refer to cutting it in “barbarian mode” – a few weeks later. “I find it highly responsive, and I am impressed by its speed,” he said.

“The AMI procedure maintains natural linkages between muscles in an amputated limb, so amputees using a prosthesis feel as if they are controlling a physiological limb,” according to a report from Brigham. “Importantly, this method can send movement commands from the central nervous system to a robotic prosthesis, so when an amputee intends to flex their ankle, for instance, the robotic limb responds appropriately. It also relays feedback describing movement of the joint back to the central nervous system, allowing an amputee to sense the speed, location and other attributes of the artificial limb.”

That speed and responsiveness is key for many Ability Hand users, according to Dr. Aadeel Akhtar, PSYONIC’s founder and CEO. “The Ability Hand is particularly well suited for this surgery because of its speed and position control capabilities, and we’re thrilled that it is working out so well for Shaun.” 

“These are the earliest days for this procedure and for advanced bionic limbs. But this is why we do what we do. Everyone deserves to be able ‘truck forward,’ like Shaun said, and to be able to take advantage of powerful bionic technology. We’re committed to staying at the leading edge and to keeping the Ability Hand affordable.”

PSYONIC is a bionic technology company based in San Diego. Leveraging patented bionic breakthroughs, PSYONIC’s Ability Hand offers those with limb differences the high-performance solution they deserve. The Ability Hand is the fastest and only multi-touch sensitive bionic hand on the market. Launched nationally in 2021, PSYONIC’s Ability Hand was called the “world’s most badass prosthetic” by Popular Mechanics and a “miracle in the works” by CNBC earlier this year. With it, users can feel sensation from multiple areas of their bionic fingers when they touch an object. 

PSYONIC was founded by Dr. Aadeel Akhtar, who was named one of MIT Technology Review’s top 35 Innovators Under 35 and America’s Top 50 Disruptors in Newsweek in 2021.