Bebe VioParalympic athlete famous all over the world with his 28 years and his 6 Paralympic medals won so far, he told our microphones and our cameras Like the prostheses he uses in everyday life allow them to do everything: from the simplest things to the most complex. To date, technology can return most of the functionality lost by people with disabilities due to mutilations.
Often when we think of prostheses, we imagine robotic arms and legs like those of science fiction films. But Bebe told us how they exist different types of prosthesis And above all that the most used ones are in truth the simplest ones. As for the arm, These are two structures with battery that, thanks to two electrodes Positioned in two distinct parts of the arm, they manage to guess when the person wearing them wants to tighten or loosen the grip. Then there are also the “robotic” arms that we all imagine, which are extremely comfortable because they are able to move the fingers individually, but which then in practice are used little by the same Bebe, because for example they are not waterproof.
These more sophisticated prostheses work with the same mechanism as the simplest ones, that is, through two electrodes, but with the particularity of being able to store a greater number of movements. It is the person himself who teaching the machine, through an app, which impulses correspond to what intention: in this way, the electrodes collect the movements of the healthy part of the arm and, thanks to the registered movements, they know how to interpret what action corresponds to which impulse.
As for the legs Instead, Bebe explains that in that case there is no need for any battery: it is a technology purely mechanics. Who wears them, covers the end of the leg amputated with a sheath to which a pivot is attacked, and this pivot will then hook to the reservoir of the prosthesis. Thanks to the movement of weight and artificial joints, the leg independently performs the typical movements of the walk.
Bebe then showed us all the other legs he wears in his daily life: from “slippers”, to “sea legs”, up to the prostheses with the heel!
He also told us about his sport prostheses: those for fencing, created by her father because when she started pulled by Fioretto, there was still no amputated athlete of arms that practiced fencing. Bebe’s entry into this sporting world was in fact a revolution, which showed many young and old such as land barriers of disability can be bypass with the right tools.
In fact, Bebe spoke to us about the importance of sport as a weapon against inequalities. When he tells us about his Academy – the Bebe Vio Academy – He tells us about able -bodied and disabled children who play together without asking too many questions: “A child just wants to play, and if he sees that the others are in a wheelchair, the first thing he does is looking for one to be able to play with them. Once a child could not kick the ball in the right way and very much envied his friend who, even with one leg, managed to pull perfectly. On one leg, finding the perfect friend of his perfect friend. “
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