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It's leg day - with the help of bionics

Walking around the gym doesn’t typically merit applause, but last week at the Aspen Club and Spa valley residents with cerebral palsy, amputated legs and severed spinal cords took their first steps in decades. Aspen Public Radio’s Alycin Bektesh was present as the bionic technology was put to use and brings us this report.

Rifle resident Sally Ray has her legs strapped into a ReWalk Personal device, a crutch in each arm and a physical therapist on either side of her.

Right now she is just trying to get her balance standing up. She has spent the last 12 years sitting — in a wheelchair — after a snowmobiling accident left her paralyzed.

It’s the launch of local nonprofit Bridging Bionics Foundation, run by Amanda Boxtel — herself paralyzed in a ski accident in 1992. The club is renting space to Boxtel for $1 a year so that those who are paralyzed may have access to expensive technology that helps them stretch, stand and even walk through tailored computer robotics systems.

Ray gets encouragement from Lee Thibeault, who was paralyzed by a hit and run motorist while he was on his motorcycle. Carbondale resident Adam Lavender and his wife are also here. Lavender was paralyzed while mountain biking with the team he raced for. Basically, it’s a room full of adrenaline junkies who even after disabling accidents, are still brave enough to navigate new frontiers

"I understand that you are in to scary things but is this scary for you?" I ask.

"No, no I'm excited," Lavender responds.

Lavender is only about a year into his physical therapy and is about to try out a Galileo Neuromuscular Tilt Table — gifted by local philanthropist Boogie Weinglass.

What looks like some sort of medieval torture device, which straps its user to a table and then lifts them horizontally, allows the leg muscles to be stimulated and that increases strength and blood flow.

At times, Lavender can feel different leg muscles engaging and this machine may help encourage that in the future.

Though shaky at first, Sally Ray refuses to stop until she masters the ReWalk technology —  and by her fourth try of coordinating her crutches to sync up with the machine-assisted stepping motion, she’s cruising by the rest of the participants, and fitting right in with the able-bodied gym rats.

Alycin Bektesh, Aspen Public Radio news.

 

 

Credit Alycin Bektesh / Aspen Public Radio
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Aspen Public Radio
Bridging Bionics founder takes a picture of Sally Ray as she learns to use the robotic legs to walk. Boxtel's mission is to make bionic technology affordable and accessible to residents who could benefit from it.

 

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