Atlanta Journal-Constitution--Feature
He's Fully Armed for Fun
Tot's dad designs unique prostheses
Michael Haag was born with a rare birth defect that left him with only one fully developed hand. But it's not keeping him from doing just about everything other children do.
"Yay, I caught Bobbi," the precocious 3-year-old exclaimed Monday morning, as he used a specially designed prosthetic fishing rod to reel in his favorite stuffed bunny in his family's living room. "She's heavy!"
Thanks to his gadget-minded father, other disabled children one day may have similar experiences. So far, Robert Haag has crafted two "helping hands," which are child-friendly prostheses that allow his son to have greater use of his left hand — and have a little fun along the way.
Haag recently teamed with a nonprofit group called the Open Prosthetics Group to try to mass-produce his inventions. "For adults, there are so many options when it comes to prosthetics," Haag said. "But for kids, the market just isn't there."
Michael was born with congenital limb loss, a birth defect that each year afflicts about 400 children born in the United States alone, according to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
Haag and his wife, Julie, who live in Brookhaven with Michael and their other son, Matthew, 15 months, say they quickly found there were few options when it came to prosthetics for infants and toddlers. Doctors and physical therapists offered the Haags standard prosthetic devices for Michael, but warned that the child might not want to use them because they were bulky and didn't offer much assistance in making his hand more useful.
"Quite frankly, he might be better off without [his prosthetic hand] at this point," Julie Haag, 33, said. "But we really wanted him to be prepared for the future, for golf and baseball. And in a couple of years he's going to be in school and he's going to need to know how to hold paper."
So, Robert, 36, an Internet technology salesman, went to work. He figured out how to disassemble the standard adult-sized prosthetic limbs and reattach kid-friendly things like a dinosaur head, whose mouth opens and closes when Michael moves his arms, allowing him to grasp toys and other items between its "jaws."
Michael's fishing rod is a store-bought Spider-Man reel attached to the end of a prosthetic arm. Michael used it to catch several fish on a recent trip to Florida.
"They were blowfish," he explained Monday, showing off his red and blue fishing pole.
Through Open Prosthetics Group, families like the Haags share information on the Internet in hopes that a manufacturer will step forward. "If they can take our ideas and use them to help other kids, God bless ‘em," Robert Haag said.
Michael's health care providers like what his parents are doing. "It's great when a parent takes this kind of interest," said Brian Giavedoni, Michael's prosthetist at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite. "It's hard to know what a child is capable of doing. They just have to be given a chance."
By CHANDLER BROWN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/17/07
Press Clippings
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Brant Sanderlin/Staff
Robert Haag helps his son Michael with his prosthetic fishing pole. The device is a store-bought Spider-Man reel attached to the end of a prosthetic arm. Michael uses the pole for real fishing trips, and also uses it to catch stuffed animals and other objects at home.
Brant Sanderlin/Staff
Michael Haag reels in his favorite stuffed bunny, Bobbi, with the modified fishing pole his dad made. Michael was born without a fully developed left arm, and his father, Robert Haag, has improved and adapted existing prosthetic devices to better suit the needs of his son.
Brant Sanderlin/Staff
Robert Haag and Michael team up in their workshop. Haag, 36, an Internet technology salesman, figured out how to disassemble adult-sized prostheses and remake them for a child.
Brant Sanderlin/Staff
This dinosaur head is attached to a prosthetic arm. The mouth opens and closes, allowing Michael to use it to grasp items.
