In what some observers have likened to a real-world version of the suit from the Iron Man movies, Army Sgt. Dan Rose stood up on his own for the first time after suffering a spinal cord injury (SCI) in 2011. With only the support of an innovative bionic suit, Sgt. Rose took a stroll down a hallway of the Spinal Cord Injury & Disorders Center at McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Richmond, VA.
Rose, now 29 years old, suffered a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the chest down after being exposed to a close-proximity bomb blast while deployed in southern Afghanistan in April 2011. Since the incident, Rose has relied on a wheelchair to get around. However, at the Richmond veterans’ hospital on July 2nd, he was the first to walk on his own using a motorized, battery-powered, 50-pound strap-on bionic suit.
Ekso Bionics Exoskeleton Suit now available at a few Veterans’ Hospitals
To walk with the bionic suit, the wearer is fitted securely with leg and arm braces adjoined by brackets and a battery backpack. Paralyzed users are able to move freely and independently, untethered or otherwise unsupported and able to remain balanced and upright. This suit is one of a few models currently being donated to McGuire by SoldierSocks, a Connecticut-based organization.
To date, SoldierSocks has donated four Ekso bionic suits. The first went to Sgt. Rose, who will use it back at his home in Wisconsin as part of a research study. The other three will go to various veterans’ hospitals for use by their patients as part of rehabilitation. Each suit costs roughly $150,000 to build.
Grass-Roots Organization for the Troops Helped Raise Funds for Bionic Suit
At the height of the Afghanistan war, SoldierSocks started by sending donations of tube socks, sunscreen and baby wipes to soldiers deployed in combat zones. About 2 years ago, SoldierSocks adjusted its focus from sending supplies overseas to providing college scholarships to returning troops. After reading a magazine article on the Ekso suite, SoldierSocks’ co-founder Chris Meek started raising funds to further develop the suit. According to Meeks, suit number 5 and 6 are now funded and being built.
The McGuire veterans’ hospital will use the suits in its spinal cord rehabilitation program and in research, according to Dr. Ashraf Gorgey, chief of spinal cord injury research at McGuire, and Dr. Timothy Lavis, a rehabilitation doctor and chief of the spinal cord injury unit. McGuire’s special spinal cord injury unit has 62 beds and is currently treating SCI patients in various stages of rehabilitation. The Ekso suit has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a Class 1 device for use in hospital rehabilitation, according to information provided by an Ekso Bionics company representative.
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