By Kim Ousley
The day before we spoke, Garet Sencaj had been outside in the rain cutting wood and building a playhouse for his niece — exactly the kind of hands-on work that once felt difficult to imagine after losing his hand in a grain auger accident in 2012.
Now, he says, his prosthetic finally keeps up with him.
Holding up his prosthetic hand with a grin, Sencaj didn’t hesitate when talking about the newest device he’s using.
“Oh man,” he said. “This new hand has been amazing.”
After years of broken devices, failed fittings, and cycling through more than a dozen prosthetic hands — including a hook at one point — Sencaj’s prosthetist introduced him to a different option: the GEM Hand from Metacarpal. GEM stands for “Grasp Every Moment.”
The FDA-registered prosthetic is the first multi-articulated body-powered hand available in the U.S., designed for upper limb amputees who need durability, function, and reliability without relying on batteries or complex electronics.
Doctors initially attempted to save and reattach Sencaj’s hand after the accident. His brother recovered it from the bottom of a grain pile with a shovel, though Sencaj said they never found his thumb or middle finger.
But the outcome quickly became clear.
“I could smell the hand rotting and turning into necrosis within two days of the surgery,” Sencaj recalled.
Recently, his brother later showed him a model of a new prosthetic hand, and for Sencaj, something shifted. Amputation no longer felt like the end of possibility — it felt like a path forward.
Unlike myoelectric hands, which rely on sensors and battery-powered systems to detect muscle contractions, the GEM Hand is fully body powered while still offering articulated finger movement.
“No batteries, no electronics, no charging, and no app on my phone to operate my hand,” Sencaj said.
For him, that simplicity has been life-changing.
The waterproof design allows him to work outdoors in nearly any condition — rain, snow, or mud. The day before our conversation, he had spent hours outside working on the playhouse for his niece without worrying about damaging the device.
The GEM Hand uses patented Reactive Grasp Technology, a cable-and-pulley system activated through shoulder, arm, or elbow movement that allows users to intuitively control grip while receiving immediate force feedback.
It’s also significantly lighter than many upper limb prosthetics. The articulated fingers are capable of carrying loads up to 110 pounds, with a vertical push capacity of up to 198 pounds.
That kind of function matters. Research shows nearly half of people fitted with modern prosthetics eventually abandon them because of discomfort, weight, or limited usability.
For Sencaj, though, this hand has restored something simple but meaningful: the ability to keep building, working, and living life on his own terms.