For the first time in his 15 years of life, Marques Reed is playing two-handed catch."So far so good," his occupational therapist says. "Good adjustment, nice."
For the first time in his 15 years of life, Marques Reed is playing two-handed catch.
"So far so good," his occupational therapist says. "Good adjustment, nice."
The encouragement is from Eva Ma at Shriners Children's Hospital in Portland, OR who is helping Marques adjust to life with a prosthetic arm.
Marques was born with just a portion of his left arm. The journey to his new prosthesis started in a classroom at North Kitsap High School and a holiday campaign where students can ask for a gift.
"A lot of people ask for like a monster, an energy drink, or like a bag of chips," student Kouper Rahier told KOMO News last December.
Marques' friends asked for an arm.
"We were like, Oh, we need to get this kid what he wants," student Kenah Seelye said at the time.
The fundraising grew from the school to the Poulsbo community and beyond, raising $15,000.
In June, Marques debuted his sleek black bionic prosthesis, known as the Hero Arm, at the end of the school year assembly.
And now, the hard work is underway. That two-handed catch is the warm-up activity.
"When we started, I could not catch it at all," Marques said. "And as we went through the process, I started to get the hang of it."
After doing everything one-handed, Marques is learning how to coordinate movement on both sides of his body.
"We call that in the technical terms bilateral coordination or using two hands for manual use," Ma said. "So that's another part that he has to organize with his brain to have these motor output and that's also a challenge."
Marques can control the arm with an app and has muscle control. He demonstrated both, using his phone to make the arm and hand move. He also explained how flexing different muscles in his upper arm will control movements.
His mother, Nicole Reed, said Marques is embracing the challenges.
"He's just willing to jump in and do things and try new things. So it's been fun to watch," Nicole said.
The new arm will help Marques learn to drive and change how he plays sports. But first, tasks at home like setting the table and taking out the garbage.
Marques is also a patient ambassador for Shriner's Hospital. It's one of the ways the family gives back after receiving so much support.
"It's been very touching to see that there is still good people out there in the world," Nicole said.
