A rehabilitation center in Chicago has equipped a man who lost both arms with prosthetics that can sense hot and cold and allow him to pick up objects.

At a news conference to show off his new equipment, Jesse Sullivan said he plans to use it to go fishing, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Sullivan was a lineman for a Tennessee electrical company in 2001 when he held a high-tension wire with his hands, burning his arms.

Dr. Todd Kuiken of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago pulled the nerves out of what was left of Sullivan's arms and placed them beneath his chest. Now, computers in his prosthetic arms send signals to a plunger in the chest that presses on the nerves, which then send signals the brain interprets as coming from the hands.

Copyright 2005 by United Press International