Nebraska Man Gifted 3D-Printed Prosthetic Finger After He's Denied Insurance: 'It's Made Me Whole'

Adam Cutshall was at his Lincoln, Nebraska home building a mini golf course for his son when a slip with his power tools caused part of his pinky finger to be amputated.

"I was drunk which wasn't uncommon for me until late. Power tools and alcohol don't mix well," he tells PEOPLE of the accident, which occurred in his mid-20s.

After years of being denied insurance coverage for a prosthetic — and out-of-pocket costs reaching up to $20K — Cutshall, now 47, decided last year that social media might be able to help him.

It wasn't until a good samaritan, Paul Hodara, stepped in and vowed to create a 3D-printed prosthetic for him that Cutshall was able to get his life back, calling it "a truly selfless act."

"When I searched Reddit for help I never thought I would find someone as talented and caring as Paul," Cutshall says. "When he said he would take the project on for free I was blown away. I had a chance to see some of his other work and I felt like Tony Stark was building my digit."

Hodara, a 69-year-old from New York City, sparked an interest in 3D printing in 2020, a hobby he says kept him busy during the COVID-19 pandemic. He joined Reddit as a way to learn more about 3D printing and modeling, but eventually came across Cutshall's plea in November 2022.

"Adam came up on one of the subreddits and said, 'I'm an amputee and I don't have insurance that will cover a prosthesis. Would someone print one for me?'" Hodara tells PEOPLE. "I thought this would be an interesting project for me to get involved in and I really enjoy assisting other people. I told him, 'I have no background in prosthetics or medical background, but I'll give it a shot.'"

Using the 3D printer at his home, Hodara spent the following few months customizing a prosthetic for Cutshall that would not only perfectly fit the shape of his finger but be sturdy enough to sustain over the years.

"We went on a journey together — designing a new model, sending him revisions every week, having him provide feedback on those revisions — until we got to a stage where we had a prototype that worked well for him," he explains.

Hodara says he and Cutshall worked well together and after about 20 prototypes, they agreed on the final version. He says creating the prosthetic was completely free of charge for Cutshall, admitting that the project was for his own learning experience because he knew it could help people.

Now after more than two decades without his finger, Cutshall is in awe at all that he's able to do again with the new prosthetic.

"I can type again as well as other things I took for granted," Cutshall boasted. "But mostly, it's made me whole. 25 years of not feeling whole has an effect on a person. It's without a doubt one of the nicer things anyone has done for me and I promise to pay it forward and have started to."

Hodara admits he got emotional when Cutshall thanked him for the kind gesture.

"About a month and a half ago he said, 'It fits great. I'm able to curl my finger.' And he made a couple of statements that really made me tear up," Hodara says. "I mean, he said it was the first time he was able to curl his finger in 15 years. That was great to experience hearing that from him."

Now, Hodara tells PEOPLE there is a lot of potential for 3D printing and has continued his work by teaming up with companies to "create assistive devices for handicapped people that will make their life easier and do it very inexpensively."

"This is all nonprofit for me," he assures. "But I feel that it's an injustice for people that don't have medical insurance and that don't have deep pocketbooks, that they can't afford medical supplies that they need to make their life better."

Hodara adds, "I don't find anything wrong with the medical industry but I think there are alternatives now and 3D printing is going to open up whole new channels for getting affordable devices to the marketplace."