Man in rural China loses arms in industrial accident, makes his own prostheses

Sun Jifa, from Jilin province, China, made his own homebrew prosthetic arms after losing his own in a "fishing related explosion." The hospital that treated him after the accident recommended a set of expensive factory-made limbs that were out of his price-range, so the 51-year-old made his own. He says that the steel is heavy and is too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. But they are still evidently superior to nothing at all, which seems to have been his other option.

Sun Jifa, Chinese Man, Creates DIY Prosthetic Limbs After Losing Hands In A Fishing Accident (PHOTOS) (via /.)

(Image: a downsized, cropped thumbnail from a larger image found on the Huffington Post, credited to "CEN")

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So he was dynamiting fish and blew his arms off? Wow. Chinese rednecks!
- s2redux
  
  Seems odd for a quarter-stick to blow off both arms. More likely (based on my massive 5 months experience of Gulf fishing ;-) is a fire in the bilge; our intrepid fisherman tried to put it out; got his arms covered in burning fuel; amputation required due to “blood poisoning.”
  
  Our rule of thumb was to ventilate and then pump the bilge, before even daring to look at the engine.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Or a fan of Monarch of the Glen.
Slowermo

First opportunity to not feel good about myself today: laughing at the phrase ”fishing related explosion”.
- JeffreyMartin360Cities
  
  It brought to mind “Gardening accident”…
  - noah django
    
    one of those that the authorities said was better left *un*solved.
    
    but yeah, this guy is my fucking hero.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=765592630 Victor Prince

Not to mention he’s half fucking IRON MAN now. Awesome guy.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  How do you half fuck somebody? And who would half fuck Iron Man when Thor is around?
http://www.commodorecrush.com/ Commodore Crush

Wow, that photo is confusing. Which body part did he lose? ;0) Looks like he made his own homemade penis pump too.
Snig

How? With his prehensile toes? I mean, I can’t imagine building extra hands with my working hands, how was he able to finagle it without hands?
- http://www.creaturesoflight.com dagfooyo
  
  My question exactly. Maybe he was very foresightful and made the arms in advance?
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Andrew-Parliment/100000014947469 Andrew Parliment
    
    I am going to go make a few backup sets of arms now, you never know…
    - travtastic
      
      In all seriousness though, how awesome would that be? I’d mount them on the wall.
mobobo

kudos to him.
http://www.creaturesoflight.com dagfooyo

This headline should read “Man makes prosthetic arms with own hands”
- BlackPanda
  
  I’d really like to know how exactly he did that, as well. Either way, it’s really impressive.
Preston Sturges

“Groovy”
- keithrc
  
  I came here just for the obligatory Ash reference. Thank you sir!
RJ

The man lost his hands, not his arms. I hate it when the media compulsively exaggerates. It’s like listening to a kid who compulsively tells wild lies about himself because he wants you to think he’s cool.

Having arms, he could tape or strap tools to the limbs to manipulate steel. I would imagine he had friends help out with the really intricate stuff, like anchoring the wires inside or doing the light welding I see around the wrists. Things like that would be very hard to do with his compromised dexterity.
oasisob1

He can ‘love normally’ with his prosthetic hands.
http://codebad.com/ Donny Viszneki

For those who are not HuffingtonPost fans:

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012%5C08%5C15%5Cstory_15-8-2012_pg9_7