Bionic woman Katie to open Galway Christmas Market
Galway City’s Christmas lights will be turned on this Friday by a Galway woman who is the first person in the country to get a bionic arm.
It will be the first time Katie O’Halloran, a graduate of NUI Galway, carries out a public function while wearing her two new arms, one of them an advanced bionic arm that was fitted in the United States weeks ago.
In Boston she was fitted with 17 electrodes that connect the brain to her new right-hand bionic arm. To date only twenty people have been fitted in the US with this technology, so advanced is it. Katie says that she is excited but nervous about her public appearance.
She is the city’s guest of honour at the official opening of the Galway Continental Christmas Market and will turn on the lights at 6pm on Friday evening.
Katie, a native of the Connemara Gaeltacht, lives in the city and is currently focussing on getting used to her new arms.
She was born with Femur Fibula Ulna Syndrome leaving her without arms and a short deformed right leg.
For the past few years there has been a huge fundraising drive for her so she could travel to the US to get her iLimb Ultra Revolution hand which is directly transmitted to her brain.
“I wear the arms up to three and a half hours a day to get used to them and to practise using the right one which is directly connected to my brain.
“I now need to source an occupational therapist here in Galway to help me progress. I had weeks of it in Boston and I need to keep it up.
“I am excited but nervous about Friday as it will be my first time wearing the arms in public but it’s nice to show people where their money went to,” says Katie.
There were a number of fundraising drives for Katie in both city and county, including a stall at the Christmas Market last year.
Read more in this week’s Connacht Sentinel