Bob Veillette will never move again. But that does not mean he will never again grab a cup of coffee. The technology that may allow him to do that, called Brain Computer Interface or BCI, produces results of an almost Biblical level: it can allow the deaf to hear, the blind to see and the…
DetailsBob Veillette was alert. A thick ribbon of gauze coiled around his shaved head. Underneath the bandages lay the teapot-like spout that researchers hope would be the channel that would capture Veillette’s neural signals and allow him to move a cursor across a computer screen just by imagining it. As Veillette, former managing editor of…
DetailsFinancial planner Scott Fessler was a highly energetic, athletic young father when, at the age of 33, he was in a near-fatal motorcycle crash. Scott suffered fractures to his cervical vertebrae, resulting in paralysis from the neck down. Immediately after the July 2006 accident, Scott underwent spinal surgery to fuse his C4-C6 vertebrae. He suffers…
DetailsThis 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…
DetailsFunctional 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…
DetailsBuckeye 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…
DetailsScott 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…
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