A man who lost his arm in a horrific workplace accident in Moray is hoping for a new lease of life with a robotic replacement.
John Thomson had to have his right arm amputated after it became entangled in machinery at the W.N. Lindsay grain mill in Keith in October 2012.
The 57-year-old continues to take pain medication for the injury, but has undergone extensive physiotherapy and been given a prosthetic limb.
However, the NHS model Mr Thomson was fitted with has been causing him significant discomfort.
Now, after a recent successful trial, he hopes to receive a bionic boost.
Mr Thomson said: “I went down to an orthopedic clinic in Dorset to do a test, where they had made a robotic arm for me.
“I spent a week trialling the arm, and I could do things like making sandwiches and opening bottles with it.
“I had it on for the whole week and it never caused me any pain, whereas the one I got from the NHS causes huge pain.”
He added: “My life will never be back to normal, but it’s probably the nearest thing I’m going to get to having my arm back.”
Mr Thomson has tested out a number of different robotic prosthetics. One was connected via a strap across his back, and could interpret different body signals – such as a flexing of the shoulders – as an instruction for what it was required to do.
Mr Thomson said: “If I flexed my shoulder it would open the hand and close the hand, and if I moved it quickly it would change the type of grip used.”
However, Mr Thomson hopes to land a more advanced model, which can link up directly to nerves in his arm and read the electronic signals being sent from his brain.
He said: “It is called a ‘Michelangelo Hand’ and when I think about opening the palm, for example, the sensor attached to my nerves can pick up on that.”
Earlier this week, W.N. Lindsay was fined £50,000 at Elgin Sheriff Court for health and safety failings that were judged to have resulted in the loss of Mr Thomson’s arm.