Barbie Lends a Leg

Mattel's famous Barbie doll has become a limb donor. Jane Bahor, an anaplastologist (specialist who creates realistic replacement body parts) at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, now implants Barbie's bendable knee joints into prosthetic (artificial replacement) devices to replace amputated fingers. Why did Bahor turn to a doll for help?

Three years ago Bahor brainstormed with North Carolina State engineering student Jennifer Jordan on how to make artificial fingers move more naturally. Jordan herself had lost a finger in an auto accident and needed a prosthesis. Many prosthetic fingers are made with a central wire. This means that they're difficult to bend, and even harder to use--to grip a glass of water, for example.

"Jennifer said, `Too bad they don't move like Barbie legs,'" says Bahor. "So we decided to give it a try." Jordan brought in her sister's old Barbie doll. They removed her legs, and cut an incision in the plastic. Inside, they found an ideal replacement finger joint.

In Bahor's prosthetic fingers, the plastic knee joint acts as a substitute knuckle, clicking into place at various different angles. Bahor makes these fingers by placing the Barbie joint inside a plaster-like mold. The mold is filled with lifelike silicone rubber colored to match the hand. The finished prosthesis pulls onto the amputated finger and grips the hand by suction.

Of course patients fitted with Bahor's Barbie prosthesis feel no sensation in the fake finger, but they can physically bend the finger to grip that glass of water. The new flexible "Barbie fingers" can even grasp a pencil and write!

"Now we don't have to dissect Barbie legs anymore," Bahor says. "Mattel just sends us the innards of the leg."

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