How Open Bionics and mr. Beast literally gave a hand in the name of accessibility
Back in late January, Open Bionics, the prosthetic limb maker, published a blog post in which the company told the story of 12-year-old Kai Pollnitz. A middle schooler from Austin, Texas, Pollnitz was born with a right hand. Insurance wouldn’t cover a prosthetic for him, and even through modest fundraising, obtaining what’s called a myoelectric prosthetic proved difficult for Kai and his adoptive mother, Charlotte.
Enter Mr. Beast and his 477 million subscribers on YouTube.
The content creator, whose given name is Jimmy Donaldson, came to Kai’s rescue and surprised him (and his mom) before Christmas with a custom-built Hero PRO device, replete with what Open Bionics described as “hand-painted MrBeast-themed covers, complete with the iconic blue-and-pink panther and Kai’s name.” It was the piece of technology Kai needed in order to independently tie his karate belt and cut his food—tasks which his friends and peers take for granted in doing every day. Kai’s device is a 3D-printed, hand-painted, and “one-of-a-kind” design, according to Open Bionics. The company shared video (starts at the 1:42 mark) of Kai getting his device from Mr. Beast.
I sat down with Kai and his mom via videoconference earlier this year to discuss working with Open Bionics and meeting Mr. Beast. Charlotte explained she and her husband adopted Kai from southern China in 2017, saying they were “only open” to children with medical needs. Kai’s limb difference was “the only issue that he had,” with Charlotte adding she’d researched prosthetics ahead of time, which was when she discovered Open Bionics. Kai was abandoned by his birth parents, left on the side of a road, and lived three-and-a-half years in an orphanage before Charlotte and her husband took him home. In that time, Charlotte said, Kai learned to adapt to his circumstances well, all things considered. The prosthetic is just better accessibility.
“He’s quite capable without it,” Charlotte said of Kai without a prosthetic. “He was able to coordinate and maneuver and do everything he could with his limb difference. It wasn’t like we said he had to have [a prosthetic]. We just thought as he got older, it might be something he was interested in, and surely enough, we were right.”
As to Mr. Beast’s involvement, the essence of how it came about was, again, down to insurance. The family’s fundraising goals had “petered out” around $2,500, according to the company, when Open Bionics put Kai’s story on the radar of Mr. Beast’s team. The response was earnest and immediate, with his representatives wanting to learn more about Kai and get more involved in trying to help him get his prosthetic.
Charlotte lost her job in Human Resources and finance in 2023, then became diagnosed with a “random” autoimmune disorder. It took two years to recover, and with her job being “decimated” by artificial intelligence, she’s been unable to find work again. Had these events not happened, Charlotte was adamant “we were going to handle it ourselves” in funding the procurement of their son’s bionic hand. For his part, Kai said getting the prosthetic now was a complete surprise, let alone with help from his idol in Mr. Beast, with Kai adding he’s “still been adjusting” to his new hand—especially the extra length it gives him. “I think I can eventually live with this,” Kai said.
“He’s in the adaptation period where you’re not supposed to wear [the prosthetic] full time,” Kai’s mom said. “There’s an insert that goes into it, and the the arm is attached to that insert. You have to adjust. I said to Kai, ‘It’s like wearing contact lenses. You can’t do it full-time right off. You have to do it for a half-hour a day, then you build it up and you can wear it for the majority of the day.’ He’s just getting used to it.”
When asked about meeting Mr. Beast, Kai said he “could not speak in that moment because I thought I would never, ever meet or see him in real life… it really surprised me.” His focus, rightly so, was purely on receiving his bionic arm from Open Bionic.
“I had no thoughts. I was just surprised,” Kai said of meeting Mr. Beast in person.
Charlotte concurred: “He was gobsmacked—he did not know what to say. He kept saying, ‘Is this real? Is that really Mr. Beast?!’ I was laughing, because what do you say? I kept trying to redirect him. He kept saying, ‘I can’t believe this is happening right now.’”
When reached for comment, neither Mr. Beast nor his representatives responded.
Looking towards the future, Kai and family plan to feed Mr. Beast and his team regular updates on his prosthetic and keep in touch. Charlotte said it was a “humbling” experience to reach out to people and ask for help, something she conceded she couldn’t have done without “lots of encouragement” from Open Bionics. Moreover, she added the advent of the internet and its plethora of fundraising platforms does make asking for assistance much easier, logistically speaking. As to Open Bionics, Charlotte described working with them as a “life-changer,” adding she “doesn’t have enough gratitude” for the company as well as Mr. Beast and his production team.
“I can’t say enough how life-changing [the prosthetic] is for him,” she said Kai’s hand.
Reporting Kai’s story isn’t the first time I’m covering Open Bionic. To wit, back in July 2024, I wrote a piece for my old Forbes column about how Open Bionic and Disney works together on licensed designs from Disney, Marvel, and other Disney properties.
