Laila El Moselhy, a 17-year-old Fox Meadow resident, has built and shipped free 3D-printed prosthetic hands and arms to more than 20 people in over ten countries. She does it all from a printer in her home.
El Moselhy, a Scarsdale High School student, began volunteering with e-NABLE at age 14, according to scarsdale10583.com.
The global network connects roughly 40,000 volunteers who use 3D printers to make free upper-limb assistive devices for people who cannot afford or access commercial prosthetics.
Each device costs about $50 in materials. Commercial prosthetics can run $5,000 to $50,000.
She spent her first six months printing every available design in e-NABLE's database. "3D printing is something you learn by a lot of practice, there are a lot of settings and what works for my printer wouldn't necessarily work with a different one," El Moselhy told scarsdale10583.com.
Her first case was an 11-year-old boy in the Philippines who had lost his right arm in an electrical accident. Not sure which design would fit, she printed two prosthetic arms and shipped both. He chose the gold one. According to her website, 3dprintwithpurpose.com, the boy sent her a video of himself dancing when the arm arrived.
That work led to an internship at Hand NGO in Cairo, Egypt, where El Moselhy saw the full cycle of prosthetic production: measurements, 3D scanning, computer-aided design, printing, assembly and delivery.
She later completed an independent study at Scarsdale High School under Brian McDonald to deepen her knowledge of 3D printing and prosthetics.
A case involving a girl in Pakistan pushed El Moselhy further. The recipient's residual arm was longer than any standard design could accommodate. El Moselhy contacted Mat Bowtell, founder of Free3DHands.org on Phillip Island, Australia, who adjusted the design specifically for that case and sent the files. El Moselhy printed the device and shipped it to Pakistan. That connection led to a second internship, this time with Free3DHands.org in Austria.
During that internship, she was interviewed for The Last Inventor: Chuck Hull & The Hope of 3D Printing, a documentary about the engineer credited with developing modern 3D-printing technology. The film premiered Oct. 17 at the Newport Beach Film Festival, according to BroadwayWorld.
A companion book will also feature El Moselhy's story, scarsdale10583.com reported, though the title and publication date have not been announced.
El Moselhy also presented her work to classmates at Scarsdale High School's Global Citizenship Day, scarsdale10583.com reported.
She continues to take cases through e-NABLE, working remotely with families to collect measurements and photographs, printing and assembling each device and shipping it internationally. After delivery, she follows up and sends replacement parts when needed.
