by David Osele
22 October 2010
A man who was the recipient of the world’s first bionic prosthesis has been badly injured in a road accident in Austria.
Christian Kandlbauer, 23, lost both his hands when he suffered a 20,000 volt electric shock in 2005, and his left hand was replaced by a revolutionary robotic limb that reacted to his brain waves, while he used a normal prosthesis on his right arm.
He was discovered by a lorry driver as he sat inside the flaming wreck of his Subaru Impreza at the side of a road near Bad Waltersdorf in south-east Austria, after hitting a tree. His robotic limb had to be quickly removed by surgeons while his right limb was still attached to the Impreza’s steering wheel after being torn off in the crash.
'Looking at the state of the wreck, it's a miracle he got out at all,' one local police officer claimed.