The Chuck Yeager of advanced arm prosthetics

Johnny Matheny, who lost his arm to cancer in 2008, is a pioneer of advanced arm prosthetics.

“Everybody tells me that I’m the only one in the United States that has had my stump into every advanced prosthetic in the United States,” the 60-year-old tells Miles O’Brien in the video above.

This week, Miles reports on the technology of advanced prosthetics, a subject with which he’s become intimately familar since he lost his own left arm in an accident almost exactly a year ago.

Matheny, a father of three, who Miles profiles in the report, underwent a procedure called targeted muscle reinnervation surgery, which moved the nerves that control his missing limb into muscles in his stump so that he can better control a modular prosthetic limb designed at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

Tune in to the NewsHour tonight for Miles’ report on how breakthroughs in sensory perception are helping amputees feel again.

And don’t miss Thursday’s report on the possibilities — and limits — of robotic arms and prosthetic technology.

Finally, in this powerful blog post, Miles shares his thoughts on learning to live with one hand.