Case 012 · April – June 2026
A.
Bucharest, Romania
He outgrew his first arm. That meant he had been using it. He came back for a second one, and asked for a lion.
Bucharest, Romania
He outgrew his first arm. That meant he had been using it. He came back for a second one, and asked for a lion.
In April 2026, his mom reached out. She was writing to check in, to see how things were going. She mentioned, almost in passing, that they had been wondering whether a new arm might be possible. Alexandru had grown.
That is the best reason a recipient has ever come back. It means the arm was used. It means he wore it enough that he outgrew it, the same way a child outgrows a pair of shoes. The original arm from Case 003 was built for a 7-year-old. Now he was turning 10.
I had just gotten a new printer and was catching up on a backlog. I told his mom I would get started. She wrote back: "We are impressed beyond words."
I asked what he wanted. His mom relayed the question. A. went back and forth for a moment: maybe black and white, maybe with a design. Then he landed on silver-gray. And he asked for a lion.
His mom sent one more message after that: "To be fair, Alex has the heart of a lion."
That settled it. The arm would be silver-gray with a crowned lion engraved on the palm and forearm. His mom called it a "robotic arm." A. called it exactly what he wanted. I printed the lion design in a dark filament on the silver palm, so it shows up cleanly against the metallic surface.
His mom photographed his residual limb with a ruler, lying flat on a surface, from multiple angles. The limb is well-formed and rounded at the tip, with good length, which makes for a clean fit in the Kinetic Arm socket. Because he has grown significantly since his first arm at age 7, all dimensions were re-measured from scratch rather than scaled from the original.
The first print attempt on April 26 started well. The lion was taking shape, the silver filament was laying down cleanly. Then it went wrong. The part detached from the bed mid-print and the printer kept going, extruding into nothing, building a tangle of silver spaghetti over the partial palm below. I scraped it off and started again the next morning.
The second attempt on April 27 came out clean. The whole arm was assembled and finished by May 10, two weeks after the measurement photos arrived.
The arm came out exactly as A. described: silver-gray with a robotic look, and the lion printed in darker filament so it reads clearly against the metallic surface. The fingers close naturally when the wrist bends, the same mechanism as the first arm he got in 2024. The strapping is all black, which complements the silver body. He starts wearing it to his go-kart sessions immediately.
Palm view, lion and crown
Back of hand, fingers extended
Fist position, fingers closed
The arm was shipped on May 22. His mom had estimated it would take five to seven weeks by sea. It arrived on June 3, twelve days later.
She sent a video first, then photos. The first message after the video: "It's gorgeous and it's a perfect fit!" Then: "He feels like a superstar now."
The photos showed him outside in a Bucharest courtyard, wearing the arm while sitting in his new BERG go-kart, the silver of the arm matching the black and blue of the kart almost by accident. He held the arm out toward the camera, the lion facing forward.
His mom sent one more message that evening: "Alex says that you are the queen." With a crown emoji.
It's gorgeous and it's a perfect fit! He feels like a superstar now.
A.'s mother · Bucharest, Romania · June 3, 2026