Claudia Mitchell lost her arm in a motorcycle accident, but is enjoying the freedom that comes with her "bionic" arm.
(Nelli Black)
But four months after Mitchell's surgery, things started to get a bit bizarre. While Mitchell was in the shower, hot water hit her chest -- and she could suddenly feel hot water on her left hand, the one that was missing.
It got even more strange: When she touched her chest, she could feel all sorts of other sensations in her missing hand. She could suddenly feel hot and cold, pressure and touch. All of this, just from touching particular spots on her chest.
It turns out that during Mitchell's surgery her doctors had moved not only Mitchell's motor nerves, the nerves that control movement, but her severed sensation nerves as well.
"Claudia was the first person that we did this on. We purposely directed her hand sensation nerves onto some chest skin, and it worked," said Kuiken of the Rehabilitation Institute.
Now when somebody touches Mitchell's chest, she feels the sensations in her missing hand.
"Claudia's brain doesn't know where her hand is living right now," Kuiken said.
Paul Marasco, a touch specialist and research scientist with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, was brought in to study the hand sensations that Mitchell feels in her chest. He put together a detailed map, connecting what Mitchell's missing hand feels with the corresponding locations on her chest.
Depending on where you touch her chest, "she has the distinct sense of her joints being bent back in particular ways, and she has feelings of her skin being stretched," Marasco said.
And Mitchell feels the exact same sensation in the exact same spot, every single time.
"She is like clockwork," Marasco said. "Her sensations are very well established."
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