James Johnson, 31, can still remember the moment he was told he would never walk again.
“It was about six weeks after I had woken up from a coma,” he recalls. “The doctor explained that the spinal injury I had suffered made it very unlikely I would ever be able to walk. It was difficult to hear, but I was determined [that] it would not mean my life was over.”
The former British Army guardsman was defending a compound during his first tour in Afghanistan in 2012 when he was crushed by a collapsing wall. His injuries left him paralyzed from the waist down and required that he use a wheelchair.
Illustration: Kevin Sheu
However, today, Johnson is able to walk from his apartment in Manchester, England’s Salford Quays, down to the local newsstand for a paper thanks to a ReWalk bionic suit. The remarkable exoskeleton device allows people with spinal cord injuries to stand upright and walk around.
“It is just so amazing to be given this new lease of life,” said Johnson, who has been using his suit for six months. “I am still adjusting to it, but hopefully it is something [that] I am going to be using on a day-to-day basis.”
“It is the little things that have been special, like being able to walk to the pub with friends, go for a walk with the dog or go down to the shop to get the paper. The little things make you feel so much better,” he said.
The ReWalk kit was designed by Israeli inventor Amit Goffer, a quadriplegic. After a car crash in 1997 left him paralyzed, Goffer was inspired to begin working on a bionic suit. The device uses motion sensors attached to leg braces and motorized joints that respond to subtle changes in upper-body movement.
“We are all driven by Dr Goffer,” ReWalk chief executive Larry Jasinski said. “We are all driven by his original thought, which was: ‘There has got to be a better way than spending a lifetime in a wheelchair.’”
Could exoskeletons really replace wheelchairs one day?
“At the moment, the ReWalk suit complements wheelchair use,” Jasinski said. “There will still be times [that] it is easier to be in your wheelchair, but living in a chair effects you tremendously: You lose bone mass, you lose muscle tissue [and] your metabolism changes because of the lack of activity.”
“So there are the health benefits to being upright, as well as benefits to the quality of everyday life. For walking around the office, the home, going outside for walk — we wanted to create a device that was perfect for all that,” he said.
Since its introduction in 2012, the ReWalk suit has mainly been used in clinics and rehabilitation centers in the UK, but is also available to buy for everyday use through Yorkshire-based supplier Cyclone Technologies.
However, the price remains prohibitively expensive. Each suit costs just under US$70,000.
The international challenge faced by the US-based ReWalk team is to get medical insurance companies to cover the cost for each user.
In New York City, the James Peters US Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center has agreed to cover costs for injured US veterans. In the UK, James Johnson’s suit was funded by the United Jewish Israel Appeal and in Germany, four insurance groups have also been convinced that the suit helps lower the cost of ongoing medical care.
“It will take time,” Jasinski said. “We have seen steady progress with private insurance companies in the US. We just have to keep giving them data from clinical studies. We are now turning our attention to France and the UK — first to the private health groups, then eventually to the public groups... We are trying to build support within the [British National Health Service].”
“In time, we would like it to become much more widespread,” he added. “So just like the wheelchair they give you, or the prosthetic, this should be given out the same way.”
In 2012, Claire Lomas became the first person in the UK to get a ReWalk suit, paid for with the help of family, friends and her own fundraising efforts in the equestrian world — a former event rider, Lomas was paralyzed from the chest down in a horse riding accident in 2007.
She also became the first person to complete a marathon in a bionic suit when she walked the London Marathon in 2012, helping raise US$10,000 for Spinal Research, a UK charity.
“I was just so determined to keep myself fit, to lead a full and balanced life again,” Lomas said.
“This kit has been incredible. It is the new opportunities it offers. Although I do not really wear it much when I am at home relaxing, it is so nice to be able to go to meetings, or walk around at speaking events and be able to meet other people’s eye-line,” she said.
Everyone hopes competition between robotics companies will eventually help bring the price down to something more affordable.
Ekso Bionics, Rex Bionics and Cyberdyne have all been experimenting with exoskeletons for wheelchair users.
Jasinski thinks it could be a multimillion dollar industry, since the technology could be tailored to cater for people with cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis or those who had have a stroke.
Lomas, now a patron of the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation, is also excited by recent research breakthroughs that could lead scientists to renew nerve cells and bring back feeling in the limbs.
“The technology is brilliant in improving your quality of life,” she said. “[However,] ultimately, one day, it would be wonderful to see treatments that could actually cure paralysis. I would just love to take a bath and feel the hot water again.”
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