Bionic arms give Galway girl Katie a new lease of life

A young Connemara woman who was born without arms is currently in Boston getting used to her new bionic limbs.

Twenty three year old Katie O’Halloran from Cill Chiaráin travelled to Boston with her mother Catherine six weeks ago to get measured up and fitted with her new limbs.

Yesterday, her father Tom, said the Galway girl would be at least another month in the United States undergoing physiotherapy and learning how to put them on herself.

Speaking from Boston on Raidio na Gaeltachta’s magazine programme, Iris Aniar on Monday, Katie said she had to relearn how to use muscles in her upper back after being born with Femur Fibular Ulna Syndrome.

She has been fitted with 17 electrodes which connect with the B Bionic 3 arms and her work for the next few weeks will be physio and becoming familiar with the limbs.

The state of the art bionic limbs, which up to now had only been available for men, were fitted at United Prosthetics in Dorchester, Boston.

Her own local community in Connemara as well as Irish communities in the UK and in Boston raised the €300,000 needed to pay for the limbs.

The Born to Run Foundation was set up and a number of fundraisers were held throughout Connemara and abroad.

In April, Katie travelled to Boston for the first time for an appointment about her new limbs and to greet runners taking part in the Boston Marathon to raise funds for the Foundation. On that occasion she met the Mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh who carried her over the finish line.

Both Catherine, from Boston on RnaG, and her husband Tom speaking from his home in Cill Chiaráin, thanked those who had donated to make Katie’s dream come true.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.