Armless farmer builds new hands for himself, others

Sun Jifa who is equipped with his homemade mechanical hands measures an iron hand at home. [Photo/IC]

An armless villager picked up a new life by equipping himself with homemade mechanical hands and helping hundreds of others who lost their hands to live a normal life.

Sun Jifa, now 63 years old, is living in Guanma village in northeast China's Jijin province. He joined the army and served as an artillery soldier in 1974 and since then he was fond of detonation and explosion.

Sun retired five years later and got married after returning home. One day in 1980, he planned to use a homemade detonator to blow up fish from a fish pond. But the detonator malfunctioned as the timer on it did not work. When he was disassembling the detonator, it suddenly exploded and severely injured his hands and arms.

Because of serious injury, doctors had to amputate his hands and elbows. He was then 27 years old. After that, he started to work with iron and steel gadgets to make his own hands.

Over the past 36 years, Sun has designed and created four generations of functional mechanical hands that enable him to look after himself and do farm work. Sun and his family have also helped more than 1,000 disabled people benefit from the device. Sun also vowed to continue to improve the device and serve more people.