Shriners Children’s Patient Gets the Ultimate Graduation Present

A longtime patient of Shriners Children’s Boston is receiving a life-changing graduation present as he prepares to transition out of care from Shriners Children’s and return to his home country of Honduras. He is being given a state-of-the-art partial prosthetic hand that will help him regain more independence in daily life.

Juan Diego has been a patient at Shriners Children’s since he was 13. He came to the hospital after his hands were severely burned in an electrical accident. The incident left his hands disfigured and several fingers needed to be amputated on each hand, causing him to be dependent on others for basic tasks such as eating or carrying objects.

Throughout the years, Juan Diego’s care team experimented with several different prosthetics to help with his functionality, but he still struggled with holding heavy or small objects. Thanks to the help of his longtime care team at Shriners Children’s Boston, in collaboration with Shriners Children’s New England’s Pediatric Orthotic and Prosthetic Services (POPS) staff in Springfield, he recently received a new device called a passive ratchet partial hand prosthetic that has three pliable fingers. The device fits on his left hand, combining with his two native fingers, to help him better use his full hand. The prosthetic can hold up to 260 pounds and helps Juan Diego complete everyday tasks that many people might take for granted. When he first tried a prototype of the device, he joked that he was like a baby reaching for every possible object in the room.

“For the last seven years, the weight of my daily life has fallen on just two fingers,” Juan Diego said. “Getting this prosthetic is a huge deal for me. There are a lot of things I’ve missed since losing the full use of my hands, like a good old-fashioned handshake. Now I can carry my own suitcase in the airport. I can hold a hammer and a pencil. It feels like I truly have five fingers again. This device is special and will have a deeply personal and meaningful impact on me. The biblical definition of grace is God’s unmerited favor or gift. To honor that definition, I named my prosthetic ‘Grace,’ because I don’t feel worthy of this hand and I’m really grateful.”

Shriners Children’s New England POPS Manager Brock McConkey, CPO, said the nonprofit healthcare system makes roughly 3,400 prosthetic devices for kids throughout the U.S. each year, but it’s their first time utilizing a device like this. The prosthetic hand is not electrically powered, but instead can be manipulated in multiple ways by Juan Diego through his palm or other hand.

“When he first tried it on and figured out how to use it, it was like a disco ball dropped from the ceiling,” McConkey said. “We could see how happy he was. The uniqueness of the hand lies in the design itself, and it’s very cool that it’s built for strength. The hand is 3D-printed with a proprietary material and custom silicone so it’s flexible. Our goal is always to find a prosthetic that will help the patient in their daily life, and it’s awesome to see how Juan Diego is already learning to use it.”

Juan Diego’s surgeon, Branko Bojovic, M.D., chief of plastic, laser and reconstructive surgery at Shriners Children’s Boston, said it’s taken a village of care team members including physical therapists, occupational therapists, prosthetist technicians as well as hand surgeons, to help Juan Diego regain the level of functionality he has today. Having known him for nearly a decade, the Shriners Children's team has formed a strong bond with Juan Diego and his family.

“His drive and ability to bounce back after his injury have been incredible,” Dr. Bojovic said. “He’s such a great resource for other patients, too. I see Juan Diego in different areas of Shriners Children’s, whether the cafeteria, lobby or patient areas, and he’s always talking to other patients, offering advice and words of encouragement. He has this innate ability to get his positive message across to others. It’s amazing to see what he has achieved and will continue to achieve in the future.”

Juan Diego was one of two International Patient Ambassadors representing Shriners Children’s during 2023-24. He is currently in his last year of college, majoring in international relations. He plans to go into diplomacy or a career in economics. Juan Diego said he hopes to be an ambassador for Honduras in the future.