artificial limb

Dmytro Zilko had a newly fitted artificial limb to replace his right leg, amputated after a shell landed nearby during fighting in a village close to the eastern town of Bakhmut - where the fiercest battles of the conflict still rage.

Patients crowd around, eager for a look, and sometimes they even pass the artificial limb around for closer inspection — and a glimpse, perhaps, of their own future.

Googling “Sailor Moon glitter holographic Infinity Gauntlet” led me nowhere, but further searches revealed a concept called uncanny valley, which is the idea that people feel more uneasy if they are looking at a human-looking artificial limb than if the limb is more robotic-looking.

Germany's largest artificial limb maker, Ottobock, is already in talks with the health ministry to help produce and fit prostheses in mobile container workshops and train orthopaedic specialists directly in Ukraine, a company spokesperson said.

Patients are not charged for an artificial limb, said Noureldeen Salah, general director of Hamad hospital, putting the cost of a "smart" prosthesis at around $20,000.