Amputee creates device to play basketball

Hector lost both arms in 1992, due to a work accident.

"I lost my arms, but I didn't lose that sense of responsibility that I have to be there for them," he recalls. "And that kept me going. I am Hector Picard. I am a man first, I'm a father, I'm a husband. I have to be that. I'm not going to sit back and wait for life to pass by. I'm going to grab it and live it to the fullest and I'm going to help people along the way."

Basktball was and is Hector’s favorite sport. So he cut a ring around a bucket, attached it to a sports prosthetic socket and created a DIY way to throw, bounce and shoot.
“I wanted to keep playing basketball and got really motivated because I love the sport so much,” Hector said. “So I created a basketball device for myself. It was very simple”, he explained.

The device caught TRS Prosthetics’ attention, a company that specializes in developing body-powered prosthetic devices for individuals missing a hand(s).

TRS and Hector worked together for six months fine-tuning and refining his original model. Together they made it more versatile to serve a wide range of adaptive athletes. Today, the TRS model is called the HP Hoopster. The new model is extremely lightweight, weighing 6 ounces, and made of a stiff but flexible polymer dual-surface “hoop” which captures the shape and size of a basketball perfectly.

More info: http://www.trsprosthetics.com/product/basketball-hoopster/

Adapted from: http://bit.ly/2op8qF6

What about you, do you have any solutions? Please share them with the Patient Innovation community!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=vLZQwVHPdeI