Becoming Bionic - Patrick Kane

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Being bionic is a state of mind. Take it from the youngest recipient of a bionic arm. Disability no longer exists. Ability is everything. Patrick Kane was born in London in 1997 .

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Patrick Kane

Patrick Kane was born in London in 1997 . His life started out normally, but that suddenly changed when he contracted meningococcal septicemia at just 9-months-old. That point was the start of his three and a half month stay in hospital. Despite multi-organ failures and numerous complications, Patrick survived, but at a cost. He lost his right leg below the knee, all the fingers on his left hand and the second and third digits on his right hand.

Patrick learned to walk on his prosthetic leg at a young age, but did not use any prosthesis on his hands until he was fitted with the advanced I-Limb Pulse in 2010. Patrick was the youngest person in the world to be fitted with the revolutionary prosthetic device. The bionic arm enabled him to do the few remaining things he could never do, such as cutting up his own food and tying his shoelaces.

In 2012, Patrick carried the Olympic torch through Trafalgar Square. In the same year, he was appointed as an ambassador for The UK Sepsis Trust and in 2014, he became an ambassador for Touch Bionics, the company responsible for producing his revolutionary prosthetic hand. Also in 2014, Patrick was featured at the Apple World Wide Developers Conference. Today, 17-year-old Patrick is in his final year of school, hoping to move on to study Natural Sciences at university.