A Wisconsin man recently became the first civilian in the U.S. to be fitted with a new type of prosthetic hand that, in a sense, reads his mind to move the thumb and allow him to grip things. The man described the device as "so much like a human hand," and said it is allowing him greater independence at any time since he lost part of his left arm in a construction accident in 2006.

It was in May of that year that the accident occurred. The man, who lives in Medford, Wisconsin, was working at a construction site when he tried to pull a piece of rebar from concrete that was being crushed by a machine. His arm became caught and drawn into the machine, where it was badly injured. He managed to pull himself free but he was bleeding heavily.

Doctors were forced to amputate the man's left arm just below the elbow. He was given a mechanical prosthetic three months later, but the accident left him unable to work and live as independently as before. As he put it, everyday tasks like tying his shoes and grabbing his eyeglasses from his nightstand became difficult.

Later, he was fitted with electric prosthetics that made life somewhat easier. The devices read muscle movements in his upper arm to guess what the man wanted to do and moved the "hand" accordingly. Then, on Jan. 12, the prosthetics company he works with fitted him with a "Michelangelo Hand," a German device that involves a moveable opposable thumb. Besides 10 injured U.S. soldiers, the man is the first person in the country to receive a Michelangelo Hand.

"This is unlike anything I've ever used," the man said.

Source: KARE-TV, "Wisconsin man is first to get new bionic hand," Boua Xiong, Jan. 12, 2012