Study of Paralyzed Man May Offer Hope for New Treatment

31 May 2011Rob Summers, paralyzed below the chest, can stand and take steps with an experimental treatment

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Rob Summers of Portland, Oregon, is twenty-five years old and a former college athlete. In July of two thousand six he was hit by a car. Doctors told him he would never walk again.

ROB SUMMERS: "I turned to the doctor and said 'Obviously, you don't know me very well. I am going to walk again.'"

Mr. Summers learned about experimental research at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. Doctors placed small electrodes in his lower back. These send electrical signals to his damaged spinal cord to move his hips, legs and feet. The signals act like the signals that the brain normally sends to produce movement.

ROB SUMMERS: "I was unable to move a toe or anything for four years, and on the third day of turning the simulator on, I was able to stand independently."

Video from the university shows him even taking steps on a treadmill while supported by a harness. The work is described in a study in the Lancet medical journal. The lead author, Susan Harkema, is a professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the university.

SUSAN HARKEMA: "Within that week with support, of the body weight support, we were able to get him to stand without any help at the legs so he was generating enough force to bear his body weight."