Exercise Machine Trains Brain of Paralyzed Woman to Walk

There is hope everywhere for people with spinal cord injury. We have dealt with adult stem cells and spinal cord injury in print and here at SHS several times previously. But this is very interesting. A paralyzed woman who broke her neck in a trampoline accident has been retrained to walk. From the story:

After the accident in July 2006 Miss Sykes underwent a risky operation where doctors inserted screws to support the fracture in her neck.

She then had months of intensive rehabilitation in the spinal injuries centre at Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield, West Yorks, which happened to be trying out a machine known as the Lokomat.

Firas Jamil, the director of the centre, said: “The Lokomat enables spinal injuries patients to move their legs in a pattern that is consistent with normal walking motions and can literally help them to train their brain to teach the body to move again.” To her astonishment, four weeks after using this Swiss-made robotic treadmill, and five months after the accident, Miss Sykes was able to walk short distances using crutches.

Pretty remarkable. It reminds me of Dr. Edward Taub’s Constrained Induced Movement Therapy in which stroke patients are retaught to use their paralyzed arms—a tremendous breakthrough that was almost stopped in its tracks by Alex Pachecho of PETA, whose notorious Silver Spring Monkey infiltration almost destroyed Taub’s life and career.