Jesse Sullivan is easily the most recognizable figure in Rhea County due to the multitude of television appearances, magazine and newspaper articles that have featured him since he became the world’s first man to be fitted with a prosthetic arm controlled by his own nerves.
That notoriety is only going to grow after being featured in Popular Science last month, his appearance on the Today Show on Dec. 1 and a half-hour episode of a new series called Super Humans scheduled to air on The Learning Channel later this winter.
He’s been called the “World’s First Bionic Man,” the “Six-million-dollar man,” and a “Real-life Cyborg.” He’s been featured on Good Morning America, the Today Show, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox News, News Hour with Jim Lehrer, the BBC and in countless magazine and newspaper articles and Web sites. In spite of all the notoriety, Jesse Sullivan insists he’s just a regular guy divinely appointed to be in the right place at the right time.
The 20-year veteran of the Dayton Electric Department was working high above Spence Cemetery Road on May 9, 2001, when he apparently touched a grounded wire without his insulated rubber gloves. Immediately 7,200 volts of electricity coursed through his body. Although he never lost consciousness, he received severe burns to his face, arms and chest and had to be rushed to Erlanger Hospital’s burn unit in Chattanooga.
He spent three weeks in a coma and had to have both arms removed at the shoulders because of the extensive damage. He underwent six surgeries and spent a month in the burn unit. His doctors in Chattanooga put him in touch with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, one of the nation’s leading centers for prosthetic research. He was fitted with mechanical prosthetic arms and received extensive rehabilitation and training from RIC. His proficient use of the prosthetics, his good attitude and his physical fitness soon attracted the attention of Dr. Todd Kuiken, who was doing advanced research into electronically-controlled prosthetics.
Sullivan became the first man to be fitted with a prosthetic arm controlled by his own nerves. First, he underwent surgery to graft what remained of four nerves that had once traveled to his arm and hand onto the pectoral muscle on his chest. Dr. Kuiken and his team designed a unique prosthesis controlled by a tiny computer and three servo motors. Now, when Jesse thinks an action with his hand, the message travels to a nerve in his chest causing a portion of the pectoral muscle to contract. This, in turn, triggers a sensor attached to the skin, which relays the command to the computer in the prosthesis and activates the motors.
Over the past two years, Sullivan has traveled all over the U.S. and Canada for interviews and to appear at medical conferences with Dr. Kuiken.
Sullivan was interviewed by Tom Bearden for the Today Show.
“In 2002, Sullivan became a guinea pig for the greatest leap forward the brain was to experience since mankind invented the wheel…,” Bearden said. “Jesse Sullivan is on the cutting edge of a revolution that may change the whole lifestyle of disabled persons.”
“I guess in my mind, my hand is still there, so I use my ‘hand’ as…the control to [the prosthesis],” Sullivan responded. “When I open that, I’m literally…opening my hand. And when I close it, I literally close my hand.”
Sullivan said he enjoyed spending a few days in New York City for the Today Show, but he and his wife, Carolyn, were both happy to return home to Dayton. He was thankful to be able to visit the site of the twin Trade Center towers, familiarly called Ground Zero.
“It’s an unbelievable place to go,” Sullivan said. “Now there’s just a hole in the ground where once a bustling city in itself stood. It’s a somber thing to stand there and remember the cloud of dust and debris flying everywhere as the towers came down.”
While in New York, the Wall Street Journal also interviewed Sullivan for a future article, and following the Today Show, he was stopped outside the studios by a blond beauty who told him she was very interested in the research he was involved in and was very proud of his courage. The woman was Bo Derek, star of more than a dozen Hollywood films, including “10” with Dudley Moore.
A film crew with Peter Rowe Productions of Ontario, Canada, was in Rhea County Thursday, Friday and Saturday shooting footage for a new series on The Learning Channel’s series Super Humans. Scheduled to air later this winter, the episode will be a half-hour long instead of the usual 15 minutes, according to Director Peter Rowe. The film crew will also be shooting footage for the episode in Chattanooga, Chicago and Toronto.
Friday, Rowe and his three-man crew spent all day reenacting Sullivan’s accident. The Dayton Electric Department recreated the scene at its pole yard on Railroad Street, and a pyrotechnics team from Pyro Shows in LaFollette, Tenn., provided the “fireworks.” Mike Walden, one of the pyrotechnicians, served as Sullivan’s stunt double.
In spite of below-freezing temperatures, Sullivan watched the whole reenactment.
“I was hoping watching this would jog my memory and help me remember what happened,” a disappointed Sullivan said.
During the shooting, Rowe interviewed Steve Clift, Sullivan’s friend and coworker for 15 years.
“Jesse was probably our best lineman,” Clift said. “He was super safety conscious and the last person we would have thought this would happen to.
“Jesse handled this situation better than anyone else I know could have,” Clift continued. “To have this injury and come back and accomplish all he has, he definitely qualifies as a super human.”
John Carpenter can be reached at jcarpenter@xtn.net.