WOKINGHAM, England, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- A Wokingham, England, teenager born without a hand is now the owner of a bionic arm that he says is "amazing" complete with a Mercedes logo on it.
Matthew James, 14, previously had a simple open-and-close grip prosthetic limb in place of his missing hand, Sky News reported. When the teen heard about the new electronic hand, the Formula One fan wrote a letter to the Mercedes GP Petronas racing team for help paying for the $57,298 cost of the i-LIMB Pulse.
In his letter, he explained that the new hand would give him more freedom with a greater range of motion. He asked the team to sponsor the hand and said he would let them put a Mercedes logo on it.
Ross Brawn, team leader of the Mercedes GP Petronas, said he was touched by the letter and eager to help after finding out the device uses similar technologies as used in F1 racing.
A few months later, James was fitted with a bionic hand from Touch Bionics.
"It is just amazing," he said after receiving the new limb. "My old artificial hand had a pretty basic open-close mechanism similar to a clamp. But with this one I can do everything. It also looks really cool -- the outer shell is see-through so you can actually see the mechanics working."
