John Amanam, a 32-year-old creative sculptor and former movie special effects expert, used his knowledge of art to produce realistic black-skin prosthesis. Inspired by his cousin's disability after an accident, he began designing prostheses to replace amputated body parts.
Mr. Amanam was aware of the emotional trauma of his cousin and wanted to offer help. The option they had was to buy a white-skin prosthesis available on the Nigerian market, which could help his cousin fill the missing limbs gap and eventually restore his confidence. But still, the skin tone does not match his cousin's, and the contrast would have been rather flanking.
In 2017, John founded Immortal Cosmetic Art and became involved in finding ways to help his cousin ─ as well as people with disabilities who feel uncomfortable as a result of an amputation ─ live a peaceful life. He has no formal training in the prosthetic domain, but his knowledge in sculpture was enough for him to take up the challenge.
From this challenge, John could design hyper-realistic human body parts that work with all levels of lower and upper extremity limbs. And depending on the complexity of the prosthesis, it would take from three weeks to two months for him to design all kinds of human parts ─ hand, arms, legs, toes, fingers, and ears.
Over time, his work was recognized and medically approved. Now, not only can John help his cousin, but he can design prostheses in a large quantity for local and international patients with dark skin. According to Amputee Coalition limb loss statistics, two billion people live with limb loss, and around 185000 amputations happen each year in the United States.
According to the Amputee Coalition African Americans are four times more likely to have an amputation than their white counterparts due to higher rates of Diabetes and Cancer. This invention by John Amanam has the potential to make their road to recovery much less psychologically damaging.
Bibliography
Administration, Web. “Limb Loss Statistics.” Amputee Coalition, 1 Aug. 2017, www.amputee-coalition.org/resources/limb-loss-statistics/.
Amadi , Urenna. “Sculptor in Nigeria Creates Black Prosthetic Hand for His Brother.” BBC News, BBC, 11 Oct. 2020, www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-54486029.
“Nigerian Artist John Amanam Makes Dark Skin Prosthetics for Black Amputees.” Afronews, 16 Oct. 2020, afronews.eu/african-news/nigerian-artist-john-amanam-makes-dark-skin-prosthetics-for-black-amputees/.
