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Colchester Man Becomes First Veteran to Receive Prosthetic 'Hero Arm'

A 43-year-old Colchester man who lost his arm while serving in Afghanistan became the first military veteran in the world to receive a 3D-printed bionic arm from UK-based Open Bionics, the company said.

Darren ‘Daz’ Fuller enlisted into a parachute regiment in 1994 and served for 20 years, Open Bionics said in a release. In 2008, while in Afghanistan, Fuller lost his lower right arm in an incident with mortar ammunition. He received funding for the “hero arm” through the NHS Veterans’ Prosthetics Panel.

In the statement from Open Bionics, Fuller said: "To be the first veteran to get one [a Hero Arm] is fantastic, but it leads on to me being hopefully the first of many.

“The first few weeks have been a voyage of discovery. There are so many things I’m doing two handed compared to before, and so many things I’m still discovering. I’ll do something and think ‘can I do that?’ with the Hero Arm and give it a try and most of the time I can,” Fuller said.

“Doing things together as a family that may not have been possible or a lot harder before has been great,” he added. “I can also now remember the last time I ate with a knife and fork as it was yesterday.” Credit: Open Bionics, openbionics.com via Storyful