Ex-paratrooper gets UK's first bionic upper arm

A former paratrooper whose arm was torn off in a motorcycle crash has become the first person in the UK to be fitted with a pioneering new type of bionic upper arm.

Milos Stankovic, 63, from Plymouth, a former Parachute Regiment officer, said he lost his left arm and nearly died in the crash that happened outside Valladolid in northern Spain in 2025.

Developed by Bristol-based Open Bionics, the new lightweight and hollow 3D-printed limb was designed for an above-elbow amputation, known medically as a transhumeral prosthesis.

Stankovic said he was "very lucky" to be "the first person in Britain" to be fitted with the prosthetic and hoped it would him to return to extreme sports.

The fitting was also significant for the company, as it had previously mainly specialised in devices for people who have lost a limb below the elbow.

Stankovic, who also works for the NHS, said he was returning from a paramotoring course when "for reasons that no one has ever worked out", he "made contact with the central reservation barrier" on a motorway.

He said: "It was a case of lose my arm or lose my head, a split-second decision. So I put my arm out to steady myself."

He said the barrier sliced through his arm as he travelled along the road before he eventually managed to stop the motorcycle.

After dismounting, he said he initially thought he had only broken his leg but then noticed his arm had gone and there was "blood pouring out".

Stankovic said he believed he only survived because an off-duty police officer happened to arrive moments later and stopped the blood flow by using a belt as a tourniquet.

The former soldier was taken to a Spanish hospital.

Stankovic said from the moment he regained consciousness in intensive care, his focus was on returning to the activities he loved such as motorbiking, cycling and paragliding.

Stankovic, who thanked the prosthetic specialists at the Bristol Centre for Enablement, said while he currently uses an NHS-funded prosthetic arm, it was designed primarily for everyday use rather than physically demanding sports.

He said he believed the hollow design of the new device by Open Bionics would make a difference to active users like him as it allowed "your limb to breathe and sweat to drain out of them".

He said the design could help reduce discomfort and the risk of skin and fungal infections caused by prolonged sweating inside the prosthetic socket.

Tilly Lockey, 21, who lost both her arms to meningitis when she was 15 months old, helped developed the new technology.

Fitted with her first prosthetic limbs through the NHS at the age of two, she began working with Open Bionics aged nine, providing feedback on prototypes and helping to shape new designs.

Lockey, who now wears two Hero Pro bionic arms, worked with the company on the socket system used in Stankovic's device.

"It's really exciting to see that now available for above-elbow amputees as well," she said.

In 2022, NHS England announced that advanced multi-grip bionic arms would become available to eligible patients across England, extending access beyond military veterans.

However, Stankovic said the Open Bionics arm was being funded through the company's charitable foundation after other avenues of support proved unsuccessful.

He believed newer technologies would eventually become more widely available through the health service but accepts innovation can move faster than public funding.

"3D printing with nylon is something that I'm sure they will eventually embrace," he said.

"But, as you know, the NHS is in trouble, budgets are tight, and they can't always keep ahead of the latest tech," he added.

For now, Stankovic said his focus was not on being the first person to receive the device but on what it could allow him to do next.

After a crash that forced him to choose, as he puts it, between losing an arm and losing his life, he said he was determined to get back to the activities that defined him before the accident.

"My ultimate hope? Get back to the sports that I was doing before this had all happened."

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