Watch: How the Andorran inventor built the world's first functional Lego prosthesis

euronews (in English)

Like many children, David Aguilar spent his childhood building Lego. While others made model aeroplanes and miniature toy towns out of the stackable plastic bricks, David built functional lifesize prosthetic arms.

Transcript

00:00The thing about Lego that inspired me so much was the possibilities.

00:08You can have four bricks

00:12and there's a million possibilities that you can assemble those bricks in a different way.

00:18That was very powerful in my head and I thought that I could do anything.

00:22When I was nine I built my first Lego prosthetic out of those bricks.

00:26My name is David Aguilar and I make prosthetic arms out of Lego bricks.

00:43These are some of my Lego prosthetics.

00:46MK1 let me do push-ups. It was my first prototype.

00:49The first one was very simple so I decided to make a more comfortable prosthetic next.

00:56The MK2 let me eat a sandwich.

01:00The five prosthetics that I've built have an evolution.

01:04I realized that there were many bricks that I could use like motors, batteries and control mechanisms

01:12for moving the entire prosthetic without me having to use a lot of force in my adult.

01:17This is so little and I have no muscle in here. It was very painful.

01:27I was born with Pollen Syndrome. It's a genetic disease.

01:32The right side of my body is underdeveloped.

01:36I realized that I was different when I came into the school for the first time.

01:41Everyone was looking at me in a funny way and asking their parents questions about my arm.

01:47I was very shy so it felt very weird.

01:51I was the easy target at school so I got bullied a few times

01:55and because of that I usually hid my arm under my shirt like this

02:00and people couldn't have anything to look at.

02:03Every day that I came back from school I spent a lot of time alone.

02:07I just stayed here in my room building Legos.

02:09It was my escaping tool from reality.

02:14I decided to make a mechanism that when I pushed my arm up

02:20the grapple on the end of the prosthetic would close.

02:23It was a very simple mechanism but it worked.

02:26For Carnival it was my costume.

02:30I was dressed as a kind of Terminator Iron Man hybrid.

02:35It was like turning myself into a superhero.

02:39I learned that I was different.

02:42We are all different. It's what makes us unique.

02:52When I built my fifth prosthetic arm, the MK5,

02:55I realized that this prosthetic could work for other people.

02:58The control system is very simple.

03:01The entire prosthetic can work with a single push of a button.

03:04I realized that I had something very important in my hands

03:07and that I needed to share it with people.

03:10Some people really need to hear something like this

03:14to overcome difficult times.

03:16It's what motivates me to keep going.

03:18You can build this version out of Lego bricks.

03:21The instructions are for free on my YouTube channel.

03:24The orthopedic prosthetic has more functions and comfort to it.

03:28But having this cheap alternative can be useful in your daily task.

03:32I learned how to live a normal life with my physical condition.

03:35So I don't really need prosthetics.

03:38Then why build five prosthetics?

03:41I was playing with my favorite toys,

03:44so I used them more as a tool to make people dream about their future,

03:49to make people more creative and to think out of the box.

03:54Building my prosthetics let me do very cool things.

03:58It's very powerful.

04:01David is a boy with great abilities,

04:06great talent, ingenious creativity.

04:11It has to be an exemplary story

04:14with which many children like him get inspired.

04:17Having put it into practice

04:20is something that you know would generate a great good.

04:24Along with my father, we developed a game

04:27that already existed, but we changed the rules.

04:30So instead of going against each other,

04:33you go together to fight a common enemy

04:36known as the monster of bullying.

04:39By creating this game,

04:42we believe that we'll help encourage children

04:45to stop bullying in their schools.

04:48They will realize that by working together

04:51they can solve any issue that they have

04:53instead of just making fun of others.

04:56And it's a very very powerful tool

04:59that they can use to learn about collaboration.

05:24Our dream would be for the Andorran educational system

05:28to play the international game of bullying together.

05:32They deserve a Guinness World Record for fighting bullying.

05:37Whether it's to help others mentally

05:40or to help others physically with a prosthetic,

05:42it's one thing that I would never stop doing.

05:44That was a way to share my message

05:46and to motivate people to make this world a better place.

05:53The Andorran Educational System

05:56The Andorran Educational System

05:59The Andorran Educational System

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