A man thought to be the first in the world to receive a mind-controlled bionic arm was involved in a fiery car accident on Wednesday, according to European media reports.
Christian Kandlbauer, 22, lost both his arms in high-voltage powerline accident five years ago. A year later, he was fitted with a robotic arm by the medical technology company Otto Bock Healthcare, the BBC reported. His right arm was a normal prosthetic limb.
[...]
On Wednesday, Kandlbauer's Subaru left the road, smashed into a tree and caught fire, the Austrian Independent reported. A truck driver was able to put out the blaze and drag him out of the car.
"Looking at the state of the wreck, it's a miracle he got out at all," a police officer was reported as saying.
That story was posted several hours ago. Alas, miracles, like bionic men, are often short-lived:
A doctor says an Austrian man who was able to drive because of an innovative high-tech artificial arm has died after a car crash.
Andreas Waltensdorfer, a senior physician at a hospital in the southern city of Graz, says Christian Kandlbauer died Thursday. The 22-year-old had been in intensive care since Tuesday after his vehicle veered off the road and into a tree.
[MSNBC] [NPR]
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