An employee with the State of North Carolina Transportation Department is making strides in his efforts to learn how to walk again, thanks partially to a team of people who hold physical therapy jobs and an innovative robot, according to a published report.
David Ayscue, 56, endured a spinal column injury in early 2010 while working on a dead tree, The Ashland Daily Tidings reports. He was enthralled about the progress he has made with assistance from Ekso, a robotic exoskeleton that the physical therapists strapped onto him.
"I guess this is how a baby feels taking its first steps," he told the news source. "I can't describe it. It's just overwhelming."
Ekso is a byproduct of research performed by the U.S. Department of Defense, which was seeking improved ways of aiding soldiers hauling weighty loads. What Ayscue was using is a mechanism that lifts people from wheelchairs, helps them stand and aids their efforts to walk again.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, physical therapists help patients enhance movement and manage pain following injuries and sickness.