A successful worker with a full-time job and a part-time business of his own, Lerselle Howard’s life was drastically changed in November 1990 by a terrible accident. As a relay driver in waste management, he had just hoisted an 8,000-pound trash compactor upward when a malfunctioning cable
dropped it on his right hand.
“I tried to push it up by myself, imagine that!” he remembers. “Then I thought if I hollered and screamed loud enough, they’d hear me in the industrial bakery, where I could hear their machinery running as they mixed dough for the bread. So I sat there and hollered and screamed, and I prayed so long and yelled so much that it damaged my vocal cords.”
When factory employees heard him and came out to help, six of them were unable to shift the weight of the compactor or understand his instructions on how to use the controls to raise the load quickly; so the resulting lift was agonizingly slow. Ultimately, Howard lost the thumb, index finger and middle finger of his right hand, and struggled with emotional trauma for several years afterward, as well.
“If I heard a ‘boom!’ like that dumpster dropping, I’d go into shock. I was scared to go anywhere; and walking home one night, a passing truck backfired and I went into convulsions and fell, hitting my head on a pole that knocked me out.”
During his recovery, Howard was urged by his brother to reopen the barbershop Howard had operated part-time since 1972, trimming hair at night after hours on his day job. Although Howard’s hand was still in a cast, his brother offered to be his first customer; and when the cut was successful, other
customers returned, too.
“So I started using my left hand,” he explains. “I went to therapy and learned how to hold things with my right hand, and it worked out well for me.”
His Lawall prosthetist, Rich Bash, CPO, notes that Howard’s ability to compensate for his partial right hand over a period of 34 years was impressive; and it was another accident in late 2024 that prompted Howard to seek help in the form of state-of-the-art technology. He was 80 years old at the time.
“Once you get to a certain age, you lose your balance sometimes,” he reflects. “I fell up some steps and hurt my right hand again. Then I kept bumping it and re-injuring the knuckle, causing it to swell painfully. The doctor said he might have to amputate it if I kept bruising it; so he put me in touch with Rich to consider an artificial hand, and the results have been amazing!”
After an initial evaluation and approval from Howard’s health insurance company, Bash began working with consultants at Ossur’s upper extremity clinic in Dublin, Ohio, to determine what type of custom-designed prosthetic device would be the best choice for Howard.
The I-Limb Quantum Digits offered an amazingly adaptable and versatile solution for Howard, who needed a partial hand with three digits, Bash explains. “With his level of amputation, other choices were available, but none that would give him this much functionality.
“The prosthetic is myoelectric, controlled by Lerselle’s own muscles; so we had to determine the placement of dual-site electrodes on his hand. One electrode, positioned on the palm of his hand, where his thumb once was, allows him to close the prosthetic hand when he activates that muscle group. The second electrode is placed on the fleshy portion of the palm below his little finger, so he can open the prosthetic by flexing his pinky.”
The individual fingers can also be moved independently or in combination—such as folding in the middle and index fingers while lifting and then closing the thumb, as if to grip and support a plate. This is something Howard has been unable to do since his original injury, Bash points out.
“His thumb will flex and extend electronically, or back and forth; or depending on the placement, he can manually rotate the thumb where he needs it to be,” Bash adds.
Although the length of time patients require to adapt to using such prosthetic devices can vary, Bash confirms that Howard was an amazingly quick study.
“We arrived at the Ossur upper extremity clinic in Ohio on Monday morning,” he said. “They had manufactured a check socket based on a silicone cast of Lerselle’s hand which we had sent earlier, and they were ready to place the electrodes and adjust the fit when we arrived. By Monday afternoon, with the
check socket, he was able to pick up blocks and a pen, and do a multitude of things with that hand, in just the check-socket stage! He adapted very quickly, even impressing the experienced Ossur professionals with how quickly he took to it.”
Bash recalls that on the second day at the Ossur clinic, they were at a buffet luncheon where Howard was using his prosthetic. Howard noted happily that it was the first time in many years that he’d been able to get his own plate of food—“and hold the plate and scoop food at the same time.” Previously,
a family member would have to fill and bring his plate, he explained. Currently, he delights in this small freedom that enables priceless independence.
After some training and practice, Howard and Bash returned home on Thursday, with no need for further therapy.
“He took to it so quickly with guidance from the Ossur Clinic’s occupational therapist that he doesn’t need any further treatment or training,” Bash explains. “If it had been a newer injury and he hadn’t been so functional without a prosthesis for so long, it might have been different.”
Support from Howard’s family is plentiful and constant. Photos sent home to his wife, Marsha, as he was fitted with his new hand, were circulated to relatives, friends and “all over the world!” he laughs.
His large family includes maybe 400 or 500, he claims. “I went to the family reunion a few years ago and I haven’t really got over it yet! All my father and mother’s offspring, a whole lot of people!”–including his own six children, 10 grandchildren, and ‘too many great grandchildren to count.’
Home again, Howard continues to discover and enjoy the full potential of his new hand, using it more effectively in his barbershop, where it may even help to attract even more curious new customers.
Bash plans to modify some of his barbering tools, making the shears and other equipment easier to grip with the prosthesis.
“Rich put an app on my phone that lets me move just one finger at a time—or the thumb,” says Howard. “Now I’m trying to learn how to use them with my clippers. I’ve got a barbershop customer coming in next week who’s going to let me try it out on his head!” he explains.
“The prosthesis is great, I wish you could see how I’m using it now. They gave me an app to put on my phone with 12 different options for fingers, that I can choose: I go on the app and tap the thumb, and the thumb will close; tap again and it opens up. One thing makes it come down, and I can move them all at one time; it’s pretty neat!
“I didn’t expect to be able to use my fingers the way they work! And I’m getting better every time I use them. Everybody was feeling sorry for me before, but man, I’m doing all right!”
Now 81 years old, Howard is a living lesson that one is never too old to learn and grow, if they’re highly motivated and young at heart. “Technology has come such a long way since I was first injured, it’s amazing!” he notes as he encourages others with limb loss to learn how a prosthesis might help them.
“At the clinic I saw a lady with all her fingers cut off, and half of both of her thumbs; when she left there, she could move her fingers like she had real fingers, It’s amazing what technology can do!”
A successful worker with a full-time job and a part-time business of his own, Lerselle Howard’s life was drastically changed in November 1990 by a terrible accident. As a relay driver in waste management, he had just hoisted an 8,000-pound trash compactor upward when a malfunctioning cable dropped it on his right hand.
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