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As the partner of a complete paraplegic, sitting up and providing trunk control would be a huge benefit to newly injured patients. My partner had titanium rods but in their back 20+ years ago and the connections and bones are now wearing down. Allowing the muscles to provide trunk control would likely improve quality of life, increase mobility, and remove the challenges with arthritis from implants they put in spinal cord injury patients currently.

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Reading in detail what it actually entails to be completely paraplegic is quite an eye-opening experience.

I think a lot of people don't really see past the wheelchair, I certainly didn't for a long time. Some people try as an educational experience to live for a day in a wheelchair, but that's easy, spending a whole day sitting down is something desk workers do anyway. It's a completely different thing if you don't get to use any core muscles. I wanted to try that, but couldn't go even ten seconds without cheating. Even with all kinds of assistive technology it's extremely hard. Also the lack of bowel control must be a total nightmare.

The whole "paraplegics can do anything, they're just like you and me" schtick that normal people are fed is a nice coping mechanism, but I think it may be holding back funding for research into real solutions.

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