Neuro note 2

TED talk “A brighter future in spinal cord injury treatment”

When I was in grade school, I had a friend whose mom had a spinal cord injury. It was a lower level lesion (as I now know), but she acquired it later in life due to an infection, however her daughter thought differently. For the longest Lisa thought that her mom’s back was “broken” due to her stepping on a crack in the ground. She would always say, “I stepped on a crack, that’s why my mother’s back is broken”. Of course with us being young we thought that was true, especially with the popular saying “step on a crack, break your mother’s back”, but as we matured we came to understand what really happened. Even though SCI don’t happen as easily or frequently as “stepping on a crack”, they do happen quite often. These injuries sometimes leave people paralyzed completely or partially and a lot of times non-functioning. I wanted to do more research on how technology could help make life better for people who may have a complete SCI.

As I did my research, I came across this TED talk whose speaker had a SCI due to a fall off of a cliff. He completely fractured his vertebrae and was told he had a complete spinal cord injury so he would never walk again. With him being an adrenaline junky, that did not sit well for him so he decided that was not going to be his story. The first thing he did was deny wheelchairs. He wanted to enhance his (in OT lingo) synaptic pruning; he wanted to use his neuroplasticity and not lose it. He and his team invented a non-motorized exoskeleton which helped him be able to walk again. They also discovered some technology called the neuro prosthetic system, which basically is inserted in the spinal cord and it activates the spinal cord. Basically, it teaches the spine how to “work” again.

This TED talk not only taught me a lot but also was very empowering. Before this TED talk, I had no idea what an exoskeleton was and had never heard of the neuro prosthetic system. This video very much answered my question, and also made me realize how much of an impact one’s determination/motivation can be in the healing or recovering process. If one wants to watch this amazing talk, the url is below!

Citation:

Guðmundsson, P. (2014, July). A brighter future in spinal cord injury treatment. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvf_a0r5uBA