Austrian man with robotic arm dies after crash

[October 22, 2010]  VIENNA (AP) -- A doctor says an Austrian man who was able to drive because of an innovative high-tech artificial arm has died after a car crash.

Andreas Waltensdorfer, a senior physician at a hospital in the southern city of Graz, says Christian Kandlbauer died Thursday. The 22-year-old had been in intensive care since Tuesday after his vehicle veered off the road and into a tree.

Kandlbauer lost both of his arms in an accident and was fitted with a mind-controlled robotic prosthesis on his left arm and a normal prosthesis on the other to enable him to continue living a normal life.

Waltensdorfer and police in Bad Waltersdorf, a town near the crash site, said Friday it was impossible to say whether the crash was caused by problems with Kandlbauer's artificial arms.

[Associated Press]

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