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After Losing His Leg, a Syrian War Survivor Turns to Tech to 3D Print Prosthetic Limbs

In the Syrian civil war a young man was injured and lost parts of his leg. With the help of 3D printing technology the man received a well fitting prosthesis.

Asem Hasna is a 22 year old guy from Syria. He has studied mathematics and was a volunteer paramedic in a small town southwest of Damascus. In April 2013 he wanted to open the door of the ambulance while a shell exploded.

The explosion was so loud that I didn’t even realise that my leg was no longer there. It all happened so quickly.

Asem was critically injured and lost his consciousness multiple times. As the local hospital couldn’t help him and they decided to smuggle him, together with 13 other critical injured patients, to Jordan. This was the last chance for him and the others to survive. Two people died on the way and Asem barely survived the horror trip.

There was no water or food. We just wanted to get to Amman. Two of our group unfortunately died on the way as their injuries were so severe

After five operations the Asem has entered a program for rehabilitation. The program was aimed at training Syrians to be prosthetic technicians to develop new limbs for other war survivors. Therefore they learned different technologies – one of them was 3D printing. First he was very hooked on 3D printing and then learned it with the help of the internet and open source software.

It was weird. I knew how a 2D printer worked but I wanted to find out more about 3D printers and learnt voraciously on the web using open source software. You just have to practice and use your own hands

Afterwards the man started to work for a start-up in Amman, 3D MENA. He also learned how to program with the help of Arduino. Hasna also printed a durable rubber part between the ankle and his heel that helped stabilise his prosthetic leg all for around $2.

2015, together with his injured roommates he decided to embark on the arduous trip to Germany in order to seek asylum. He made his way along with his other disabled friends from Greece to Macedonia then Croatia, Hungary, Austria and finally Germany, all on his 3D printed prosthetic leg. Now he lives inside a camp in Berlin and shows kids how to program an Arduino.


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