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Episode details

World Service,25 Dec 2018,44 mins

Extraordinary Senses: Amputee Who Could Touch Again

Outlook

Available for over a year

Dennis Aabo Sørensen was at a party in the Danish city of Aalborg when a faulty firework exploded in his hand. His injuries were so severe he had to have his hand amputated. But 10 years later, through taking part in ground-breaking research, he became the first amputee in the world to feel the sensation of touch through a revolutionary prosthetic. The LifeHand 2 tests took place in Italy at the Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma. He tells Outlook's Saskia Edwards what it was like to make history. Award-winning American magician Lisa Menna has been using her skills to promote women's rights all over the world. The WW2 soldier bear: Private Wojtek of the 22nd Artillery Transport Division of the Polish Armed Forces was a Syrian brown bear. Fighting alongside him was a teenage soldier called Wojciech Narebski. Now aged 94, Wojciech tells Jo Fidgen about the extraordinary sight of Private Wojtek, the bear, carrying artillery shells at the Battle of Monte Cassino. On Christmas Day in 1996, Pete Goss was living out his life-long dream by taking part in a solo round-the-world sailing race. He was in the Southern Ocean when his race plan was violently disrupted by a storm and a mayday distress call from a competitor. Raphaël Dinelli had capsized and Pete was his only hope of rescue. Image: Dennis Aabo Sørensen testing his prosthetic on a plastic cup Credit: Credit Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma

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