Air Powered Suit Allows Paraplegics to Walk

posted on May 25 by Admin in the Disability News, Health, Healthcare, Paralysis Cures, Spinal Cord Injury, Technology, Veterans category

After his career in the Army was cut short when he sustained serious injuries throughout his body including breaking several vertebrae in a parachuting accident, Monty Reed’s life changed forever. Doctor’s told Reed he would never walk again, but after 20 years of physical therapy, rehabilitation, and ingenuity, Reed would prove them all wrong with a new invention that indeed allows him to walk again.

Reed vowed to dedicate his life to not only helping himself to walk, but also other paraplegics. After his accident, Reed studied robotics at North Seattle Community College. However, it wasn’t a text book that would take Reed down the road to achieving his life’s dream. The inspiration for what would become known as the LifeSuit came from a science fiction movie written by Robert Heinlein, called Starship Troopers in which soldiers of the future wear robotic suits that allow them to carry heavy gear.

The LifeSuit –or “Rehab Suit” as it’s sometimes called– is a robotic suit that uses compressed air to assist the user to walk and even climb stairs. Reed has poured thousands of dollars of his own money and time into developing the LifeSuit, which is currently on its 14th prototype. In addition to the suit itself, Reed founded an organization called They Shall Walk, whose prime objective is to bring the LifeSuit to those who need it the most.

To explain the main objective of the LifeSuit, Reed said “If you’re paralyzed in this country, the funding typically allows for only one physical therapy session per month. If you can’t move your legs, how are you going to exercise them? The idea for the robot suit is that it will move a patient and they will get passive exercise. When the machine moves their legs, their muscles experience exercise; their bones bear weight, so it maintains bone density and muscle mass.”

After hearing from a young paraplegic boy in Singapore who was contemplating suicide, but who, after reading about Reed’s research and his LifeSuit online, then boy changed his mind and decided to live, Reed was compelled to hold fundraising events for They Shall Walk more than ever.

Source: http://shoreline.patch.com/articles/video-classic-cars-and-new-medical-technology-cruise-shoreline