Utah girl gifted life-changing bionic arm from stranger pays it forward to other kids in need
Remi Bateman was born without her left forearm and hand but she doesn't let it slow her down.
Now 9 years old, Bateman is busy riding her bike and scooter around her neighborhood in Utah – and she's got her sights set on doing even more daily tasks, like cutting her own food and doing her own hair.
Remi has been using a silicone prosthesis, covered by her health insurance, since she was 6 months old. While the prosthetic is helpful, it's heavy and doesn't give her the ability to move fingers.
"Her current prosthetic is pretty stationary and doesn't do a lot," her mother, Jami, told "CBS Mornings." The hand on Remi's prosthesis was molded into a plastic fist.
A "life changing" mission
Last year, Jami came across a social media post for Open Bionics and its 3D-printed multi-grip "Hero Arm." Each finger has its own motor, making it possible to grip everyday items with precision. Within 48 hours, Jami and her husband, Josh, scheduled a video consultation with Open Bionics and drove to their clinic in Denver, Colorado for an initial fitting.
"It was life changing," Jami said. "This bionic arm is like 95 percent of having a real hand."
The Batemans hoped insurance would help pay for the Hero Arm but their provider denied coverage, saying it wasn't "medically necessary," according to Jami. Without insurance, the bionic arm cost $24,000.
"I do understand that you can live just fine without [a hand], but imagine what you could do with two hands. I feel like the whole world is built around having two hands," Jami said.
Like many Americans with medical needs not covered by insurance, the Batemans turned to crowdsourcing.
On Dec. 10, 2024, Remi's fight for her Hero Arm made the local news. Within four days, the Batemans raised over $24,000. Andy Schoonover, CEO of CrowdHealth, a subscriber-based crowdfunding platform for medical bills, also contacted the Batemans after seeing their plea for help online.
"He told me he would pay for Remi's hand in cash," said Jami.
And that's where the story takes a turn.
Paying it forward
With Schoonover's gift, Jami realized they still had $24,000 in donations. She asked her daughter what she wanted to do with it.
"Help more kids," Remi enthusiastically replied. "So people can actually have a life-changing arm like me."
Across the country in Maryland, 9-year-old Tyraun "Taj" Johnson was also trying to raise money for a Hero Arm. He was born with a partial left hand. His family worked hand specialists at Johns Hopkins Medicine to look at surgery and different prosthesis options to give him some usage of his left hand. They were hopeful the Hero Arm could be the solution they were searching for.
But like Remi, Taj's health insurance company denied the coverage of the Hero Arm. His family was devastated.
"You're telling me that a kid able to function with daily tasks – something as small as feeding themselves, getting dressed...You're telling me that that's not medically necessary?" his mother, Kaitlin Skinner, asked.
"I would give Taj my left hand if I could," Kaitlin added.
The family started lemonade stands to raise the money for the bionic arm. In four months, they had only made $1,500.
Then they got a life-changing call from Remi's mom. The Bateman's offered to use the donations they received for Remi's arm for Taj's Hero Arm.
Open Bionics helped connect the families. Samantha Payne, co-founder of Open Bionics, told CBS News clinicians spend a lot of time assisting families in appealing insurance denials. "The technology is 20 years old and has been tested," added Payne.
A dream come true
Kaitlin was brought to tears by the Batemans' generous offer and thanked them for making Taj's dream come true.
"Taj got teary eyed when he saw a video of Remi holding a fork with the Hero Arm," Kaitlin said. One of the things Taj is most looking forward to is playing sports.
Kaitlin recently drove to New York City with Taj to meet Daniel Green, upper limb prosthetist at Open Bionics, who will make the mold that will become Taj's Hero Arm. While in New York, Taj had a surprise visitor: Remi and her mom. They arrived at our invitation.
A new friendship forged through the kindness of strangers. Remi and Taj plan to meet again during the summer.
"If we have a playdate with our [Hero] robot arms, we could be like Ironman," Remi said.
Donations for Remi continued to pour in. So she's continued to pay it forward, using the fund to help two more 11 year olds fund their Hero Arms after insurance denied their claims.
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Boston Globe
2 hours ago
- Boston Globe
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Still vexed — an overview of anxiety and depression
In 2018, the Deseret News published a series called Generation Vexed, exploring and detailing the then-growing scope of teenage anxiety in the United States. It was already well on the rise even before the pandemic, the land wars that broke out in the Middle East and Europe, and the political schism of the 2020 election. Approximately 1 million teenagers struggled with anxiety, and experts at the time estimated that nearly 1 in 4 had some form of an anxiety disorder, with that ratio going up to nearly 1 in 3 when just girls were considered. Census data from 2015 'estimated more than 17 million (children) had already experienced a diagnosable mental disorder,' the Deseret News reported. That number was 'the equivalent of the entire populations of Utah, Idaho, Arizona and Colorado' combined. That was just teenagers, and just the disorder of anxiety — and that was seven years ago. Anxiety is still rising. From 2018 through the first two years of the pandemic in 2022, anxiety rates for all Americans went up by over 16%, and depression rates by over 15%. In 2023, the American Psychiatric Association said that more than a third of all adults felt more anxious than they did the year before. Then, when it did the same study last year, the number of adults reporting that they felt more anxiety jumped to 43%. For perhaps a brief moment, 2023's number seemed small by comparison. Today, the National Institute of Mental Health reports that some 40 million Americans have anxiety disorders — nearly one-fifth of the total U.S. population — and more than 14 million suffer from depression. That is another mental health disorder that has steadily been rising, with 29% of all Americans experiencing depression, according to Gallup, up from 19% eight years earlier. Now, the NIH research suggests that 21 million people in the U.S. will experience a depressive episode in their lifetimes. Mental Health America, a nonprofit dedicated to mental health and prevention, published a report that says 46% of Americans will at some point confront a mental-health-related disorder. Those numbers, while shocking, are not as surprising to encounter in 2025 as they may have been even a few years ago. That's because, while there are more people experiencing disorders such as anxiety and depression, general awareness of broader mental health issues has risen, too. According to Michele Nealon, a psychologist and president of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, writing for the United Nations in 2021, the pandemic 'accelerated positive momentum in our communities to raise awareness about these issues and increased accessibility to crucial support and services for those affected.' 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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a webpage that was updated in January of 2025, explaining and contextualizing the ways people with mental health disorders are made to feel stigma — the negative sentiment, shame or disgrace leveled onto an action or behavior. It included structural stigma, where institutions are not prepared to support those with them; public stigma that comes from individuals and groups judgmental toward mental health issues; and even self-stigma, where someone with a mental health issue 'may believe they are flawed or blame themselves for having the condition.' All of which is why experts say it's so important to keep talking about the resources that exist for people who are experiencing anxiety and depression. Not just in order to combat the stigma that individuals, communities, cultures and organizations may have, but also the sheer volume of those who are already experiencing anxiety and depression and need to know how and where to find help for a legitimate and pressing health concern. There are resources that exist, and — as always — much more to learn. It's a topic that's been investigated, it turns out, since the days of ancient Greece and Rome. The first known medical reference to mental health disorders like anxiety or depression is within the texts attributed to Hippocrates from ancient Greece. They describe a subject named Nicanor who's stricken with an irrational fear — a phobia — of the woman who plays the flute at the symposium. Hearing the music played at night, Nicanor would have panic attacks, yet he was unaffected when he encountered the same flutist during the day. Its inclusion by one of modern medicine's founders made clear that mental disorders had long been considered health issues. Ancient Roman thinkers investigated the variations of mental disorders more specifically. It was Cicero, the Roman statesman and stoic philosopher, who carved out the notion of anxiety and depression — separately — and sought to solve them. 'In some there is a continual anxiety, owing to which they are anxious … for all are not anxious who are sometimes vexed, nor are they who are anxious always uneasy in that manner,' he wrote in 45 B.C. According to Marc-Antoine Crocq, a psychiatrist, who wrote 'A history of anxiety: from Hippocrates to DSM' in the scientific journal Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, Cicero's arguments come from a book written after his daughter's untimely death and was 'a plea for Stoicism, a branch of philosophy that is one of the pillars of today's cognitive therapy.' Kathleen Evans, of Griffin University in Australia, suggested that Cicero's whole book was indicative of a 'major depressive episode' for the great ancient philosopher. His work may have been a means for him to navigate the struggles of his own life. Another stoic called Seneca, wrote Crocq, 'taught his contemporaries how to achieve freedom from anxiety in his book 'Of Peace of Mind.'' Later, Seneca suggested in another of his treatises that people should stay present in their day-to-day lives, previewing thousands of years ago what is now commonly referred to as 'living in the moment.' Depression was long called by the other name of 'melancholia,' especially so during the period between the late 1700s and the late 1800s. It was defined as 'a disorder of intellect or judgment, a 'partial insanity' often, but not always, associated with sadness,' wrote Kenneth S. Kendler, of Virginia Commonwealth University. He wrote that it was a 'mood disorder.' That name, itself, helps to understand why there is some lasting stigma felt today by folks whose lives and work are disrupted by their depression as if it is a matter of mood, rather than a debilitating health disorder. Not until the German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin began using the word 'depressive' to describe elements of 'melancholia' in the late 1900s did its name change to what we know today. That definition and symptoms have changed, too. While it is common for people to feel sad or low in the course of their days, depression manifests itself with more pronounced symptoms, some of which include feeling down, empty, pessimistic or hopeless. Those experiencing depression report feeling tired, lacking in pleasure or interest in the things they care about, difficulty concentrating and trouble sleeping, among many others. Though not always, some also report suicidal thoughts. Understandably, these feelings often implicate behaviors and moods — the poor descriptor from the Victorian period raising its ugly head — like anger, restlessness, a tendency to isolate or a struggle to manage responsibilities. The list of symptoms is long, and not everyone who has depression exhibits all of those that are published by the National Institutes of Health, the Mayo Clinic, or any of other national and local agencies. Additionally, age plays a role in which symptoms are more or less pronounced, as does gender. There are a kaleidoscope of different possible symptoms — many of which everyone feels at some point or other in the course of their lives — and it makes it difficult to determine when one is momentary and another a disorder. If someone is feeling any of these symptoms for prolonged periods, they should speak to their regular medical care provider about it or call one of the local or national hotlines published with this article to discuss their specific circumstances. Taking advantage of available resources and learning more is the first step to care. To help someone who may not have recognized these symptoms for themselves, Harvard Health suggests encouraging that person to use the resources or seek help, or a softer touch might be to offer emotional support. The symptoms of anxiety — just like Cicero suggested a couple millennia ago — are not necessarily unique to those who suffer from an anxiety disorder. Most people will feel some version of what we understand anxiety to be at some point in their lives. It could be before starting a new school, prior to a test, a date or a job interview, or even when rent and other bills are due. To a certain extent, anxiety is a regular part of most lives, which makes its disorder also hard to firmly categorize and understand. The Mayo Clinic explains the disorder as an escalation of the common occurrences of anxiety. 'People with anxiety disorders frequently have intense, excessive and persistent worry and fear about everyday situations,' its website reads. Those symptoms show up as constant worry, elevated heart rates, fear, trouble sleeping, feeling a sense of looming issue or problems. There are also many different permutations of anxiety that also exhibit these symptoms. These issues can lead to other health issues or even depression itself. If someone is uncertain, they should also discuss the matter with their regular health care provider or one of the national hotlines. The treatment for both begins with asking questions and seeking help, no matter how certain or uncertain someone might be. Part of that seeking of help, too, can be speaking with your friends, family, clergy or teachers. The ancient Greek and Roman philosophers asked each other these bigger questions about their minds and health at the lyceum in order to reach reasonable conclusions, and it turns out that many of them are still in place. Today, we have doctors, phone and text hotlines, and our respective loved ones to seek out more and better information about anxiety and depression. The more we know, too, the less likely we are to judge or to suffer needlessly from anxiety or depression. Seneca wrote that 'there are more things … likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.' If you need help, please refer to this document for contacts that can speak over the phone or text in either moments of crisis or those who need support. You can always call or text the national Disaster Distress Hotline at 1-800-985-5990 (para Español: Llama o envía un mensaje de texto 1-800-985-5990 presiona '2.'). If you're in Utah, Huntsman Mental Health Institute lists several ways to get help for a mental health crisis: University of Utah community crisis intervention and support services: 801-587-3000. Text or call Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: 988. Utah Crisis Line: 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Walk-in crisis center for adults: 955 W. 3300 South, South Salt Lake. Utah Warm Line: 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. 1-833-773-2588 (SPEAKUT) or 801-587-1055. For parents, teachers and educators: SAFEUT Crisis Chat & Tip Line, download the app or call 833-372-3388. For active National Guard members, their family and civilian personnel: download SafeUTNG app or call 833-372-3364 (SAFENG).
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Getting help: neurodiversity, aging, addiction and mental illness
The National Institute of Mental Health counts mental illnesses among common maladies not just in the U.S., but around the world, estimating that as much as 23% of the adult U.S. population faces mental challenges. Approximately 53 million Americans are family caregivers, providing varying degrees of support to relatives and loved ones because of disease, disability or simple frailty. Last October, the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Otsuka America Pharmaceutical did a study that concluded that if family caregiving was a business, 'it would be the largest revenue-generating company in the world,' providing $873.5 billion worth of labor each year. Close to 40% of that is due to Alzheimer's disease or dementia care, though only a quarter of those caregivers face that particular challenge. Neurodiversity, addiction, aging and mental health are all issues with some challenges where families may find they need some help or suggestions or simply access to a support group. A few weeks ago, a team of Deseret News reporters set out to explore some of the issues impacting families across that spectrum of issues. Today, we offer those stories with links in case you missed them earlier. The importance of sensory awareness with autism Learning disorders and decades of progress Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and new approaches Why caregivers can't do it all alone Aging well: preserving your brain with food, exercise and sleep What we're learning about Alzheimer's disease Anxiety and depression are very, very old problems How states are tackling social media and smartphone use in schools What do you do with debilitating fear? Healing addiction through power of community, compassion and hope. How addiction impacts the brain
