Prosthetic arm

British teacher who had her 4 limbs amputated returns to teaching

Trigina had given up hope of returning to teaching.

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An elementary school teacher who had all four limbs amputated is back in the classroom after being fitted with electronic arms.

Cath Trigina, 47, a mother of two, had a blood infection two years ago.

She left school one day when she "felt a little unwell" and called the health service at the weekend.

The teacher did not know that she had contracted sepsis.

Trigina, a teacher at London International School, suffered from seven to 11 cardiac arrests, and on one occasion her family was asked to say goodbye.

Doctors amputated her legs, below the knee, and her arms below the elbow, to save her life.

I stayed in intensive care for a month.

“My family came to visit me at Christmas, but I don’t remember any of them,” the teacher says.

After 18 months of recovery, Trigina was eager to get back to work, but her prosthetic limbs were uncomfortable and heavy. “I always dreamed of being able to go back to teaching,” she says. heavy.”

Her school organized a fundraising campaign, and raised enough money to buy a prosthetic arm from the famous company "Bionix" in this field, based in Bristol.

The company uses 3D printing and scanning to make robotic limbs.

This allowed Trigina to become more independent, and months later she was fitted with a second prosthetic arm.

Its new arms use electromuscular sensors that detect muscle movements and convert them into intuitive hand movements.

With her new limbs, the teacher is back in the classroom;

"From writing on the school board to holding books, children are obsessed with my prosthetic arms, and they always ask me to show how they work," she said.

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