After baseball star Rob Summers was hit by a speeding car in Oregon three years ago, he was told he would have to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. However, the 25-year-old is now making history as the first person paralysed from the chest down to take a step unaided.
After
baseball star Rob Summers was hit by a speeding car in Oregon three years ago,
he was told he would have to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
However, the 25-year-old is now making history as the first person paralysed
from the chest down to take a step unaided. The movements he has achieved give
hope spinal cord injury and possibly stroke victims.

Summers
can move his legs because of electrical stimulation from a device implanted in
his lower spine. Two intense years of training, suspended over a treadmill with
physiotherapists manipulating his legs to stand and walk, have helped to build
up the spinal cord neural network which processes signals to and from his legs.
The real discovery has been that it is not the brain that is in charge of
movement, but the legs and the spinal cord.

Summers
had some residual feeling after the accident. This may indicate that his
success may not be replicable in every patient – but it does provide a glimmer
of hope. ~ Guardian, May 20

Paralysed baseball star steps forward
Jared Yee
spinal cord injury
sport
sports