Boy, 7, with £13,000 bionic Iron Man arm can now ride a bike safely
A boy born with only one hand is delighted to have ‘become Iron Man’ after being given a superhero-themed bionic arm.
Jacob Hyatt, seven, can now ride his bike safely thanks to the new limb, which his family were delighted to buy for him after a superhuman fundraising effort.
Mum Bernice Hyatt, from Bedfordshire, says her son is ‘over the moon’ and keen to high-five anyone he meets.
The schoolboy, who fell in love with a high-tech prosthetic last year – was given the custom-made limb after well-wishers came together to raise £13,000.
Bernice, a 33-year-old florist, explained: ‘He keeps asking me to put on music so he can clap along – and he wants to high five or fist-bump everyone he meets.
‘I have always taught Jacob it’s good to be different – you don’t have to fit in.
‘But despite that, there are things he has always struggled with, so the second he tried on the bionic arm, he was desperate to get one.
‘Leading up to the day he got the arm, every day he would ask “Mummy, why is it taking so long?”’
Jacob, from Eaton Bray, got his arm from Open Bionics after being given a new bike for Christmas.
And now the youngster can cycle with his friends without wobbling or worrying about falling off.
Bernice continued: ‘When we got the call to collect the arm, he was jumping around with excitement saying “I’m going to be Iron Man!”
‘Since he got the arm, he’s worn it every day and wanted to show it off to anyone he meets.
‘Every day he realises there are more and more things he can do now – especially now he can finally ride a bike’.
Bernice, also mum to nine-month-old Blake, first learned her eldest son Jacob’s hand was missing at her 20-week pregnancy scan.
His arm had stopped developing early in the pregnancy.
Jacob’s mum vowed to help him grow up feeling confident and unique, finding ways around potential problems by making the youngster as independent as possible – like buying clothes with zips instead of buttons.
But Bernice said that as he grew up, she found her son becoming more aware of things he struggled to do – after first asking why he only had one hand when he was just four.
Then she saw a post on Facebook last year mentioning a trial of Open Bionics’ new bionic ‘hero arm’ and put Jacob’s name forward.
He was invited to attend and came away desperate for one of his own.
‘I nearly cried when he began picking up and dropping tennis balls and doing the “OK” hand sign – his eyes completely lit up’, Bernice recalled.
‘I remember him saying “Mum, look what I can do!” and I knew we had to get one for him.
‘He still does things in his own way, but he doesn’t get frustrated now. It still takes a lot of effort for him to do some things, but he’s able to do so much more.’
It took just a few weeks for the fundraising target to hit its goal – and Jacob went on to collect it on February 24.
Bernice, who lives with partner Jamie Buchanan, 44, and his two children, said of her son’s life with own arm: ‘Although it was all he had ever known, he could get a bit frustrated at times because there were things he couldn’t do the same way as other children.
‘Simple things like opening the car door, and opening a packet of crisps – he does it all by himself now.
‘Every day there’s something new he learns how to do, and gets excited shouting “Mummy I can do it!”.’
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