When Paul Burnett first met Kamden Houshan in kindergarten, the two boys quickly became friends. They bonded over playing superheroes and creating goofy videos. While others often focus on Kamden’s wheelchair and disability, Paul never acted like Kamden was different.

“What really contributes to their friendship is that Paul does not see Kamden as someone who has a disability. He sees him as Kamden. Because of that Kam truly is himself around him,” Yvonne Houshan, Kamden’s mom, told TODAY.

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First robotic exoskeleton cleared for use with stroke and spinal cord injury levels to C7

RICHMOND, Calif., April 04, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ekso Bionics Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB:EKSO), a robotic exoskeleton company, today announced that it has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market its Ekso GT robotic exoskeleton for use in the treatment of individuals with hemiplegia due to stroke, individuals with spinal cord injuries at levels T4 to L5, and individuals with spinal cord injuries at levels of T3 to C7 (ASIA D), in accordance with device’s labeling. The Ekso GT is the first exoskeleton cleared by the FDA for use with stroke patients. Continue Reading »

Denny Ross – paralyzed from the chest down in a car accident – has gone from counting his steps to counting kilometres, attempting to finish a five kilometre race with the use of a ReWalk exoskeleton on Saturday.

“It’s a huge step,” he said with a laugh while taking part in the N.E.R.D. Run at William Hawrelak Park, an annual fundraiser supporting the University of Alberta’s Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute.

Ross has been using the exoskeleton as part of a pilot study examining the effects of using the ReWalk device, purchased by the Spinal Cord Injury Treatment Society in 2014 and leased to the university for the trial. Continue Reading »

The loss of hand function is one of the most devastating consequences of Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) because of its severe impact on the everyday activities of daily living. Melbourne University Researcher Professor Mary Galea and Ms Natasha van Zyl, one of three specialist surgeons in the Upper Limb Program at Austin Health, supported by the Institute for Safety, Compensation and Recovery Research (ISCRR), are carrying out pioneering research in support of nerve transfer surgery for SCI patients in Victoria. The surgery involves plugging surplus live nerves into nerves that no longer work to reactivate muscles and restore movement in patients’ hands. One of the patients going through the surgery is Joel Sardi. Continue Reading »

Monroe Fire Department Volunteer Ed Faulds was already recognized for his dedication and commitment to the fire department’s prevention and pre-fire planning division last June.

So, in December, when they named him the 2014 Administrative Staff Member of the Year, he was a little surprised.

Faulds, who has been serving as the department’s pre-incident planning technician for nearly two years, has lived in Monroe nearly all his life. The 53-year-old volunteers at the fire department three days a week, working to craft a series of digital building schematics for all of the high-occupancy structures in Monroe. Continue Reading »

The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, a Center of Excellence at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, has received permission from the Food and Drug Administration to begin a Phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate the safety of transplanting human Schwann cells to treat patients with recent spinal cord injuries.

We are not recruiting anybody until we obtain approval from our Institutional Review Board.

This trial is just 1 brick in the wall. We will continue working with our scientific colleagues to test other “bricks” in the wall to ultimately develop a strong defense to prevent or reverse the many effects of paralysis. Continue Reading »

Northwestern Medicine is the first site open for enrollment in a national clinical research trial of a human embryonic stem cell-based therapy for participants with a subacute thoracic spinal cord injury. Following the procedure, participants will receive rehabilitation treatment at The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC).

Northwestern also is the lead site of the trial, sponsored by Geron Corporation (Nasdaq: GERN). The trial eventually will include up to six other sites and enroll up to 10 participants nationally. Continue Reading »

It was a homecoming to remember as Central welcomed back J. Johnson and honored him as the school’s basketball king on Friday night.

It was Johnson’s second appearance of the week at a Central ballgame after his Jan. 19 release from Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa. He had been there since suffering a serious spinal cord injury in a Dec. 27 car wreck.

The Central senior said it’s great to be back in Sequoyah County and he enjoyed watching the Tigers play. Continue Reading »

CHAMPION jockey Damien Oliver, who resumes riding at Flemington on Saturday after a 15-month absence with a career-threatening spinal injury similar to that of Collingwood forward Blake Caracella, had only three words of advice for the Magpie: “Don’t rush it.”

Caracella received fractured Vertebrae and bruising of the spinal cord in an accidental collision with Brisbane’s Tim Notting at the MCG last Saturday night. Continue Reading »