Amber Stime needed more than a hand. She needed two.

After nearly a decade of use, the prosthetics worn by the Palo Alto resident were falling apart despite a patchwork of repairs.

"They don't fit right," said Stime, 50, who lost her hands when she picked up a landmine in her native Ethiopia as a toddler. "I'm tired by the end of the day because I have to compensate for them."

But the founder and director of African Cradle Inc., a Mountain View-based nonprofit organization that caters to the needs of adopted children of African descent and their families, was in a bind. She gave up her health insurance years ago to stay afloat financially and couldn't afford replacements.

On Wednesday afternoon, Michael Dodd, owner of Applied Orthotics and Prosthetics in San Jose, extended the proverbial helping hand, outfitting Stime with a brand-new set of prosthetics.

The mocha-colored hands took about a week to fabricate and if billed through insurance would have cost about $40,000, Dodd said as he used a sewing machine to finish piecing together a harness. He did most of the work over the holidays.

Dodd said it's been a goal of his to build the prosthetics for Stime since meeting her in 2009, when she connected him with an Ethiopian girl who needed artificial limbs following a car wreck.

Over the past five or six years, Applied Orthotics and Prosthetics has taken on a handful of such pro bono cases. It's been Dodd's way of continuing the community service he did as a member of the San Jose Rotary Club, which he was forced to give up when work got too busy.

"Last year, he said the next case we do is you," Stime said in an interview before the final fitting at Dodd's office. "I said laughingly, 'sure.' "

An unexpected and well-paying job provided the funding for Stime's new hands, Dodd said. He was contracted late last year to build a set of prosthetic legs with computerized knees. Dodd is now coordinating a meeting between Stime and the client, who was excited to hear how the profits would be spent.

While Stime can do many things without the prosthetics, from writing a note to changing a diaper, they are the key to her independence. If she didn't have them, she wouldn't be able to drive.

"I can't imagine my life without them," Stime said. "I can't see myself functioning fully without them."

Stime cannot recall the blast that ripped apart her 3-year-old body. But others have told her she was among a group of children from the village of Debre Tabor who had unearthed a land mine planted by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's forces during World War II.

Unaware of the mortal danger they were in, the youngsters took turns holding the strange object.

"When it was given to me, it exploded," said Stime, adding that a quarter-sized piece of shrapnel is still embedded in her body.

The event was life-changing in more ways than one. It set in motion Stime's adoption by a Minnesota couple who emphasized the importance of service. Years later, she found herself back in Ethiopia helping children from similar backgrounds find homes in the U.S.

"Here I was adopted," she said with a laugh, "but I never thought I'd work in the adoption field."

As Stime tried on the new prosthetics Wednesday and endured Dodd's gentle teasing, she couldn't help but crack a joke of her own.

"I feel like the 'Six Million Dollar Man,' " she quipped while locking and unlocking the articulated metal hooks. "Click, click."

Dodd said her reaction was payment enough.

"I'm just happy for her," he remarked when Stime posed for a photograph with her new hands outside his office. "Just look at her smiling face. That's what it's all about. It's all for her."



Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/