Paralyzed Virginia Marine walks for first time in 33 years

wtvr.com

98 points·smacktoward··9 comments

> During physical therapy at McGuire Terry was fitted with a motorized exoskeleton.

While ultimately really cool, I was really hoping it was some sort of therapy to reverse the paralyzation , not just work around one aspect of it. :/

It turns out that just moving those limbs, even if it's under external power, is a very effective form of therapy. So don't worry, your fondest wishes are coming true.

Same here, but it's still gratifying to hear that it's making a difference for him plus advances in motorized exoskeletons have the potential to help lots of other people, too.

On the contrary, working in one aspect of it will make it so it works on everyone with the same disability, without having to be the same cause (eg. it works on people with ASL like Stephen Hawking and not just similar injuries)

I am heartened that these stories appear to becoming increasingly common. Like the frog boiling in water, good things can happen without us realizing it as well. And they're worth calling out.

More info on the exoskeleton at http://rewalk.com.

I couldn't find pricing, battery life, or how hard it is to put on each day (I suspect that may take lots of time because one must make sure the joints of this skeleton rotate along the same axes as the knee and hip)

According to this source: http://ideastations.org/radio/news/mcguire-va-medical-center...

The rewalk Major Terry Labar is using retails for $67,000

This may be a silly question, but I wonder why the Stair function isn't available in the US? Is it an FDA approval thing?

Seems like you're spot on: "Use on stairs is not approved by the FDA in the United States." [0]

[0]: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1607962/000119312514...

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