This year, a monkey named Thor picked up a ball and put it into a cup while all the nerves in its hand were turned off. Rather than send signals through the spinal cord, the monkey’s brain was talking to the muscles through tiny electrodes embedded in its wrist and hand. Suddenly the lifeless limb…
Functional electrical stimulation (FES) is the use of low-power electric signals on muscle. It has been part of the spinal cord paralysis world for more than 30 years; back in the early 1980s people living with paralysis began to use FES to “ambulate,” while using walkers and braces – not practical or everyday functional, but…
Buckeye Wellness Center Crucial Fitness Resource for People with Spinal Cord Injuries VALLEY VIEW, Ohio — Exercise bikes, an unweighted treadmill, a seated stepper and other workout machines fill the newly carpeted room at Buckeye Wellness Center in Valley View. But this is far from a typical fitness center. Owner Christopher Wynn designed the gym…
Scott Fessler didn’t let a 2006 motorcycle accident and C5 injury stop him from getting back to his career as a financial planner, but he needed a little extra help getting his right hand back to work. He finally got that help last June when he received FES implants at the Cleveland FES Center. The…