5-year-old girl throws out first pitch with her robotic hand

Hailee Dawson may not know it
right now, but she is a pioneer
in using 3-D printer technology 

HAVING A 5-year-old girl throw out the first pitch to her favorite baseball player is adorable enough, but to throw it using her robotic hand makes Hailey Dawson's feat  amazing and inspirational -- involving a group of mechanical engineering students at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and an out-of-the-box-thinking and devoted mother, determined to help her daughter overcome a disability.

Hailey was born with Poland Syndrome, which affects one to three newborns per 100,000. It is a disorder in which affected individuals are born with missing or abnormal muscles on one side of the chest wall which may create  abnormalities of the hand, which may involve shortened or partially fused fingers.

Her "special hand," as Hailey calls her right hand, is not fully developed," according to her mother, Yong Dawson, a Las Vegas-based photographer.

Prosthetics can be very expensive and in Hailey's case, she would need new devices every few months to accommodate her natural growth.

Yong Dawson's first attempt at using the a private company's 3-D printer produced a limb that was too big and clumsy. That's when she turned to the UNLV students, who dove into the project with the eagerness of passionate young people.

A special hand was manufactured
for Hailey's "first pitch." Her father
did the artwork.

"This is a dream project," Professor Brendan O'Toole, chair of mechanical engineering at UNLV, told KTNV. You get to help somebody, you've got a little bit of robotics ... It's a great design project."

The new hand, created by the UNLV students, has given Hailey the opportunity to do many things that she was unable to do before with her right hand including, gripping and throwing a baseball. The groundbreaking work by UNLV and Touro University Occupational Department is fine-tuning Yong's idea but the success, thus far, has already opened many doors and possibilities of developing hands and other limbs at a fraction of the cost of the traditional prosthetics.

"The files to create the hand (are now) available online for free," Yong said. "The original creators of the 3-D hand wanted anyone to be able to print the hand, so they made it available for anyone to download for use. The original hand is called the Robohand. There are many versions available."

Because of it is so inexpensive, the design can also be customized and done relatively quick. When Hailey threw the ball to her favorite ballplayer, the Orioles'  Manny Machado, (her father was raised in Maryland) she did it so with a specially designed Orioles-themed robotic hand.

Yong Dawson wrote to the Orioles about her daughter's desire to meet Manny Machado in an attempt to publicize the new technology's capabilities. Before they knew it, the Dawson family was on a flight to Baltimore, courtesy of the team. On Aug. 10, before the Orioles played the Oakland A's, she realized one of her dreams and got a fist bump and a hug from her hero.

Hailey's pitch to Machado may only be a few feet, but it may go a long way by spreading hope to others with similar disabilities. Hailey wants to eventually play baseball. As refinement for her artificial hand continues, I wouldn't put it pass her.

Aaron Mayes/UNLV Photo Services

UNLV Professor Brendan O'Toole, right, and Katherine Lau, an undergraduate intern from Rutgers University, middle right, join Yong Dawson, left, in helping to take measurements of Dawson's daughter, Hailey, at UNLV.