Bionic legs let spinal injury patient walk againRSS Feed

Spinal injury patients who have been paralysed have the hope of walking again after scientists developed groundbreaking robotic legs.

Rex the Robotic Exoskeleton has been designed to help people who have suffered a paralysing spinal cord injury to walk, stand and go up and down steps and slopes.

The design is the idea of Rex Bionics founders Richard Little and Robert Irving, a pair of Scots who emigrated to New Zealand from Fort William, where the robotic legs have gone on show.

Dr Richard Roxburgh, a neurologist and medical adviser to the Muscular Dystrophy Association in Auckland, said: "For many of my patients, Rex represents the first time they've been able to stand up and walk for years."

One of the first people to try out the legs was the wheelchair-bound Hayden Allen, who suffered a spinal cord injury in a motorcycle accident.

"I'll never forget what it was like to see my feet walking under me the first time I used Rex," he said.

The product is due to go on sale worldwide next year.

Posted by Matthew Dixon

News brought to you by Serious Law, specialists in spinal injury

Swimmer recovering from spinal injury

15 July 2010

A spinal injury has left a promising young swimmer in a hospital bed unable to walk.Hawaiian Darrren Choi suffered the spinal cord injury after falling from rocks onto a shallow reef when sightseeing with...

Read More...

U2 singer Bono back from spinal injury

14 July 2010

The lead singer of U2 is ready to tour again after recovering from a spinal injury.Bono suffered a spinal injury at the end of May during preparations for a concert in Germany that forced the band to cancel...

Read More...

Pools 'pose spinal injury risk'

13 July 2010

Diving into pools can be a major cause of spinal injuries, it has been claimed.According to Spinal Cord Society president Gary Wood, diving into shallow water and garden pools can be very dangerous and...

Read More...