ReWalk is the mobility miracle giving people who are wheelchair bound, some who have been paralyzed for decades, the ability to walk again.
Gene Laureano is paralyzed from the waist down, but this new incredible technology is getting him on his feet and walking again for the first time in 12 years.
“I always had this belief that someday, somehow, I’m gonna walk again,” Laureano said.
But, he was told over and over again that would never happen after an accident in 2001.
“The ladder slipped from under me,” Laureano said. “I quickly realized I’m on my way down.”
Determined to get back on his feet, fate connected the Army veteran with ReWalk- a robotic exoskeleton.
“There’s motors on the legs,” Craig Peters said. “So there’s powered motors on both the hips and the knees and with a very sophisticated software those motors know exactly what to do.”
First, Laureano had to build the upper body strength needed to use his mobility miracle. But, soon he was proving everyone who told him he’d be wheelchair bound for life, wrong.
“When I got in and they told me to press a button, I finally stood up, he said. “They said ok it’s time to sit down, I just took my wrist away, I said no, I want to enjoy this for a minute.”
The steps weren’t far behind.
“When I first took a walk with my son it was huge,” Laureano said. “When my wife saw me after 13 years, and I’m trying to get over the tears and she comes up to me and she hugs me and she tells me, this is how I remember when I met you.”
The exoskeleton costs $77,000 but physical therapists say what it does for a patient is priceless.
“It takes a standing frame to get these people up and in a standing position,” Greg Kirk of Fitness Unlimited said.
“A lot of times it’s big, it’s bulky and a lot of people don’t understand what it takes to get somebody with a spinal cord injury standing. When you look at the exoskeleton it really is amazing how barrier free it is and how mobile they are.”
Laureano now travels the country with ReWalk spreading the word, sharing his story and inspire others with catastrophic injuries – giving them hope for the future.
“Now, unlike me, you have to have a surgeon tell you you’re paralyzed, but there’s an option,” he said. “You quickly realize you don’t have to exist in a chair, you can participate in life.”
Right now, ReWalk is working to get the exoskeleton covered by insurance companies – if you’d like more information, you can find that on their website www.rewalk.com.
