Soldier wounded in Afganistan becomes first Briton to have bionic arm, which is controlled with his BRAIN

Making a cup of tea or potting a plant in the garden may sound like simple, day-to-day tasks.

But until recently, Corporal Andrew Garthwaite could barely imagine being able to complete them with ease, Daily Mail reports.

Now the soldier, who lost his right arm to a Taliban rocket-propelled grenade, is  able to live a normal life – after becoming Britain’s first person to be fitted with a bionic limb controlled by the mind.

Incredibly, the 26-year-old has only to think of moving a hand, arm or fingers and the false arm responds accordingly.

He said: ‘When I first got told about the operation I thought it was some sort of fairy tale. But here I am today with this arm that is fitted and works off my mind.’ The soldier, of South Shields, South Tyneside, took a direct hit from a rocket in the insurgent stronghold of Nad-e Ali, Afghanistan, in 2010. A close friend was killed in the  attack.

He initially received a traditional prosthetic, which allowed him to perform a limited range of tasks.

But in January last year, he was flown to the Medical University of Vienna in Austria.

There, doctors ‘rewired’ the severed nerve endings from his shoulder into his chest. Electrodes were delicately attached to his chest and connected to a tiny computer fitted on the prosthetic limb.

Now when he imagines moving his missing arm, electronic brain pulses travel through the nerve endings and the electrodes, sending messages to the micro-computer. The soldier can now open and close his hand, extend his fingers and rotate his wrist.

Sensors in the prosthesis will soon let him feel different temperatures. 

Cpl Garthwaite is being medically discharged from the Army. But after spending Christmas with his wife and family, he plans to explore fresh career .

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