Morgan Stickney was once an Olympic hopeful, but a rare, painful vascular disease forced her out of the water and into the surgery room to get her legs amputated below the knee. But rather than opting for a standard amputation, Stickney took a chance and chose for an experimental surgery called the Ewing Amputation.
Unlike standard amputations, which sever nerves and muscles, the Ewing amputation reconnects those fibers, maintaining communication with the brain. The procedure could restore a natural sensation to prosthetic joints. In other words, someday, an amputee could think about moving their prosthetic ankle, and it would actually move. In the mind of the amputee, it feels like they are moving an organic limb instead of a prosthetic.
Stickney was the first double amputee to have the Ewing amputation and then try on an AI bionic limb. If this combination proves successful, it could change the future of amputations and prosthetic limbs. Recently, the online publication Freethink had an interview with Stickney, who has her eyes on competing in the Paralympics. You can find that right here.
