Chef's Bionic Hand Implant Better Than New
ABC News' Abbie Boudreau and Taylor Behrendt report:
Hands are a chef's most important tool in the kitchen, so when Eduardo Garcia lost one of his hands in a freak accident, it could have spelled an end to his culinary career. Not so for Garcia, who received a bionic hand implant, and has been finding his way around the kitchen ever since.
After being electrocuted, Garcia woke up from surgery without his left hand. "When you wake up from the anesthesia and all you're looking at is sort of an ended forearm, it's unmistakable that you are now an amputee and you don't have your hand anymore," Garcia said on "Good Morning America." "And it spurred this search of, 'Okay, how do I cook again?'"
Garcia received a state-of-the-art, Bluetooth-operated bionic hand implant in September after 22 surgeries.
At first, Garcia had trouble adjusting to his new tool. "I've dropped things. I've been in Costco with a 30-pound box of limes and watched them go all over the place," he said with a laugh.
But Garcia quickly adapted, and he now even sees the advantages of the bionic hand over his regular one. "I've got superpowers. I can grab things out of an oven and not get burnt," he said. "I don't cut my fingers anymore. I'm rocking it!"
What could have been a game-ender for the professional chef has simply proven to be a game-changer.
"It was, 'Okay, we gotta do it different now, but it's doable, so how do we do it?" Garcia said. "And that's powerful. That takes you away from the focus on, 'Woe is me,' to, 'Whoa. This is me.'"
Check out recipes from Chef Eduardo Garcia:
Spiced Custard French Toast with Saute of Fall Apples and Mascarpone