Paralympic athlete takes home exoskeleton system

LONDON – Paralympic athlete Claire Lomas has become the first person to take home a ReWalk? exoskeleton system for personal use. Ms Lomas demonstrated her ReWalk system, manufactured by ARGO Medical Technologies, at the annual International Spinal Cord Society (ISCoS) meeting held at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre.

“With the help of the ReWalk I am able to stand, walk, talk to my friends and family eye-to-eye, and exercise in a ways that I have not been able to since my injury,” said Ms Lomas, a 32-year-old paraplegic from Leicestershire. A horse riding accident in 2007 left her paralyzed from the chest down.

Ms Lomas also became the first person in the world to complete the London Marathon in a bionic suit in April 2012, and has raised over ￡200,000 for spine injury research. She was recently chosen to light the celebration cauldron to kick-off the 2012 Paralympics in London.

She is able to stand, ascend and descend stairs and walk indoors and outdoors independently using the ReWalk system.

“I am very excited to take the ReWalk home and incorporate it in my daily life,” Ms Lomas said. “With the help of the ReWalk I am able to stand, walk, talk to my friends and family eye-to-eye, and exercise in a ways that I have not been able to since my injury.”

The new technology is manufactured by Argo Medical Technologies and supplied exclusively in the UK by Cyclone Technologies.

She recently completed training at Cyclone’s rehabilitation and training centre using the ReWalk model made specifically for institutional use.

The ReWalk consists of a two powered leg braces that respond to the way the user tilts either forward or backward in them, along with a specialized backpack that provides power to the suit.

It is still in the prototype stages of its development and currently costs nearly $72,000, said the company behind the exoskeleton. This model iAdidas NMD R1