A boy from a high school in Tennessee got a robotic hand from his classmates as a gesture of friendship, an act the teen has called life-changing.
Sergio Peralta, who initially arrived at Henderson high school near Nashville during the fall, initially tried to cover up his right hand, which wasn't fully formed.
“As I was growing up, like during my first years of school, I had a lot of people asked me what’s wrong with … my hand, lots of people, and I used to just say even in kindergarten, ‘I was born like that,’' the 15-year-old Sergio told CBS. Peralta's teacher, however, discovered his secret and gave his engineering class an assignment, to build Peralta a robotic arm.
"You're supposed to be engineering, coming up with new ideas, solving issues," Hendersonville High School student Leslie Jaramillo told WTVF, a local CBS affiliate. "And just making things better than how they used to be."
Peralta was born with a right hand that wasn't fully formed and was used to it. He had adapted-- learnt to write with his left hand and do other things. His classmates offering to build him a robotic hand came as a pleasant surprise, he said, adding that never in a million years had he expected it. The students took over a month to design, size and 3D print the hand and became friends in the process. Once the hand was fitted, they played a game of catch to test it.
