Family loses everything in apartment fire, including son's unique prosthetic arm
A Nebraska family lost everything in , including a unique prosthetic that helped their son.
Now, the Hekl family is trying to get a new prosthetic for their son, which took them almost five years the first time around.
This is the second time the Hekl family has had to start over in six months. A drunk driver crashed into their last .
This time, though, their loss included all of their belongings, including Hekl's son's prosthetic arm.
Joseph Hekl was born with Amniotic Band Syndrome, a rare condition that restricts blood flow, causing birth deformities.
"My son is missing most of his left hand. And so the nice thing about Open Bionics is we were able to get that bionic arm without having to do any invasive surgeries or anything like that," said John Hekl.
Open Bionics is a company that works to advance prosthetics accessibility for people with limb differences. In the process, they created the Hero Arm, a prosthetic that is superhero-themed for children with missing limbs.
Elise Grisett is the Clinical Director of Open Bionics in the U.S.
"We want to make sure that they see that, you know, their limb difference is actually what can make them really cool and feel really empowered," said Grisett.
She worked directly with Joseph to help him get the arm.
"He was actually the first Hero Arm user in the United States to get our Miles Morales 'Spiderman' arm," said Grisett.
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John Hekl says the Hero Arm made his 11-year-old son feel like his favorite superhero, while also giving him access to his left arm.
"Him being able to pick up things for the first time with not just his right hand, you know, being able to go ahead and hold things in one hand while he can still operate, you know, with the other... it definitely... yeah, it's one of those things that does make this a lot harder," said John.
Despite everything the Hekls lost, John says the most important thing is that his family is safe.
"We know that the material things aren't what define us. We are not the sum of our stuff, you know. And he knows that as well, too. Even with him having his arm, you know, that wasn't something that he would try to depend on every single day for every single thing," said John.
Unfortunately, Joseph was only able to have his Hero Arm for a single year.
Open Bionics is actively trying to see if they can help the family replace the arm.
You can help the Hekls by .