Mosha is an elephant who makes history not because she performs something spectacular or because she is unique among elephants. This young woman is notable because she is the first elephant in history to be fitted with a human-made prosthetic leg.
She walked on a land mine near Thailand’s northern border with Myanmar when she was just seven months old, losing one of her front legs in the process. It took two years for the unfortunate calf to recover, and happily two years later, she got the opportunity to meet surgeon Therdchai Jivacate at the Friends of the Asian Elephant Foundation hospital in Lampang, Thailand – the world’s first elephant hospital.
Therdchai Jivacate is a generous surgeon who has supplied free prosthetic limbs to both humans and animals through the Prostheses Foundation, which he founded in 1992. He is well-known for making cheap prostheses that are both enjoyable and long-lasting, and he typically uses natural resources in his work. Mosha is one of almost 20,000 people who have benefited from his kindness and charity.
Jivacate has been providing the elephant calf with numerous new legs in order to keep up with her steady growth since they first met eight years ago. In fact, his team had the most trouble with her initial mechanical limb. Elephants were clearly distinct from the cats, dogs, and even birds for which Jivacate had developed prosthetic limbs.
Even elephant calves were significantly heavier than adult dogs, which is not surprising given that these fragile beasts were renowned as the largest mammals on land; yet, constructing distinct legs for them was surely a difficult feat.
Jivacate and his collaborators eventually succeeded in creating a prosthetic leg made of thermoplastic, steel, and elastomer that could hold Mosha’s weight and didn’t make her uncomfortable. She learned how to use it in about twelve hours.
H/T: dailybbnews