This article is posted on behalf of Morry Marshall, who has retired.
This is a personal thank you to the semiconductor industry, an industry that I have worked in for almost forty years. My thank you is for a new hand.
In 1962 I was in a line-of-duty military accident that resulted in the amputation of my left hand. Soon after, in Walter Reed Army Medical Center, I was fitted with a cable-operated prosthesis, the best then available. It used a Dorrance hook opened by a cable connected to a strap looped under my opposite shoulder and closed by two powerful rubber bands.
That type of prosthesis served my needs for many years. I have nothing but praise for the U.S. Army and the U.S. Veterans Administration for the medical and prosthetic care I received during that time. After more than forty years using a hook I began experiencing pain in my shoulder. The strap under my arm had been pulling on my shoulder all the time, creating a strain, even when it was not being used to open my hook. To lessen the pain, it was necessary to loosen the strap and use only one rubber band to close my hook. The hook still worked, but not very well.
Something needed to be done, Enter electronics, especially semiconductors! I was fitted for a myoelectric prosthesis, the ETD (Electronic Terminal Device), manufactured by Motion Control, Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah.
