TikToker With Prosthetic Fingers Shares Her Experience With Tens of Thousands of Followers

TikTok creator Natasha Baggett has gone viral on the app after sharing details of her day-to-day life using prosthetic fingers.

Self-described in her TikTok bio as an "amputee, farmer, woodworker, [and] spinal cord injury survivor," Baggett specifically gained attention for a video posted on Thursday, in which she responded to the question: "Do you ever get phantom fingers?"

"I actually do, I get that a lot on my nubs," explains Baggett in the clip. As she speaks, she shows her prostheses—which she appears to use on the index and middle fingers of her right hand—from different angles. "It's really odd. People don't understand that it's not just pain that happens...but also, like, sometimes my finger feels like it needs to pop really bad."

"I used to do that all the time, and it feels like the ones that aren't there anymore...need to be popped," she adds. Baggett also said that she feels other phantom sensations besides just pain, including the feeling of water running down her finger and cold temperatures.

The clip has already been viewed over 613,000 times and counting.

Another video, posted soon after, answers another question from a viewer—this time, about how her prostheses work. "Are they fully mechanical?" asks the viewer.

"When I move my nubs, my prosthetic fingers move," she explains. "My prosthetics are body-driven—that means that they are not electronic." As a result, Baggett doesn't need to charge them, and she can get them wet, making them useful for swimming and showering.

She also notes that the prosthetic digits "helped restore a lot of fine motor skills, like picking up small things."

Newsweek attempted to contact Baggett but did not receive a response in time for publication.

Horton's Orthotics & Prosthetics explains the difference between Baggett's body-powered prosthetics, as opposed to electric options. For a body-powered prosthesis, "a system of cables or harnesses (along with manual controls, in many cases)" is what controls the limb. "Essentially, you operate and control the prosthetic arm using other parts of your body, such as your shoulders, elbows, or chest."

They note that body-powered prostheses are "practical" because "they tend to be more affordable...and do not rely on an outside power source to operate."

Myoelectric prostheses, on the other hand, "are controlled using electric signals that are actually created by your body's muscles." The signal, inside the device, can "obtain electrical signals from these muscles," "translate those signals into movements," and "execute the demands properly."

Prosthetic limbs date back all the way to Ancient Egypt, reports the AbilityLab, but they became more common during the American Civil War due to soldiers losing limbs in battle.

According to the Amputee Coalition, there are "nearly two million people living with limb loss in the United States." Additionally, "approximately 185,000 amputations occur in the United States each year."