Student inventor takes London stage
MORGANTOWN (AP) — A West Virginia University student who developed a device to help amputees when she was only 16 is now the youngest person ever invited to present to the Royal Society of Medicine.
Twenty-year-old Katherine Bomkamp was invited to speak Saturday at the Medical Innovations Summit in London.
She’s a political science sophomore with no medical background.
Bomkamp invented a prosthetic device called “The Pain Free Socket.” It uses thermal-bio feedback to alleviate phantom pain in amputees.
The brain focuses on heat that’s produced, rather than sending signals to the nonexistent limb.
As a teenager in Waldorf, Md., Bomkamp visited Walter Reed Army Medical Center with her Air Force veteran father. She saw amputees suffering and wanted to help.
In November, Glamour magazine named her one of “21 Amazing Young Women.”
