It can be heartbreaking to lose a body part to a serious illness like cancer or a terrible injury. These changes can not only affect how patients, their families and others see their bodies, but also impact the responsibilities and tasks that they are able to perform. It can have adverse effects on mental health. To help people in need, a hospital in the UK has developed incredibly lifelike prosthetics for people who have lost bodily parts, providing comfort to many patients, as per a report in the BBC.
The Maxillofacial Prosthetics clinic at Poole Hospital is providing assistance to more than 40 individuals who have undergone major trauma or cancer and lost a body part. When reconstructive surgery is not an option, the hospital's expert team fabricates alternatives that are incredibly lifelike.
As per a video on BBC's official Instagram handle, the prosthetics are made by medical staff at the hospital's clinic. Giving an example of a cancer patient, the outlet said that he now has "several noses" due to the replacements.
The patient, Phillip Sims, said in the clip "I don't worry about going out anymore - I lead a normal life. "I'm absolutely over the moon with what they can do. I've got several noses but this is the winter one."
Although the prosthetic ears, eyes, noses, and fingers of the unit cannot restore physical functions, the dramatic improvement in a patient's aesthetic appearance can have a profound personal effect and even change their life, the outlet noted.
Susan Double, who was fitted with a magnetic ear, recalled the moment she first saw herself in the mirror after the procedure as "amazing." " Because I had been all that time without one and then suddenly there was one," she said in the video.
A combination of art, technology, and medical science is used to produce the prosthetics. The new body pieces are meticulously and carefully manufactured from synthetic materials. Along with sampling the patient's colour and skin tone, prosthetists also take moulds from them.
