We used to think that the brain
controlled all our movements,
so when you had a spinal cord injury,
if you lost that communication between the brain
and the spinal cord, there's really nothing you can do
unless you regenerate that connection.
It turns out, the spinal cord has much more
of a sophisticated role than we thought before.
We can stimulate the neural networks in the spinal cord.
We can help the spinal cord relearn
how to do things it was able to do before the injury.
I was supposed to have been an individual
that was gonna live and die from this chair.
I mean, with the epidural stimulator,
it's so close to the point of just moving this leg.
You're growing the ability to recovery.
I really think that it's gonna give me
the availability to get out of this chair.
Growing up, we started out with go karts,
and then we got into bicycles and everything.
My grandpa took me to my first Supercross race.
Seeing that, it instilled me with this want
that that's what I wanted to do.
My career was at the point where I was amateur pro.
It was a couple races, and then I had my pro points,
where then I could race the stuff that you see on TV.
I went out and I was testin' a new motorcycle
that I had just got.
And it was like a hundred foot jump.
Right off the face of that jump,
I remember the motor just locked up.
It had me pinned, and then it just ,
and just tumble, tumble, tumblin'.
Some people came up to me and were like, you okay?
And I'm like, no, I don't think so.
Can you get up?
I was like, no.
You're paralyzed from the waist down.
You're a complete injury.
You can't feel anything.
You're not gonna regain any mobility, any function.
From here on out you're gonna have to have daily care,
more than likely.
You're gonna live from a wheelchair.
That was a lot to swallow.
Basically how I took it was that from that point on,
my life was starting to end,
versus it continuing to be an adventure.
That was how it felt to me.
When I got that prognosis,
the first thing I went to was looking at centers
that offered rehab and locomotor training,
and which were the top ones.
That was where I kinda heard through the grapevine
that they had a guy in Louisville
that was going through the procedure
for the epidural stimulator,
and they were seeing some very interesting things happen.
Left toe up.
We were doing a series of experiment.
We implanted the individual with the epidural stimulator.
He was laying down and he, on his own,
tried to move voluntarily.
He tried to move his toes, and he wiggled his toe.
And I said, holy S***.
We did not anticipate that.
We tested it, the stimulator off, and they cannot move.
When you turn the stimulator on,
they're able to move.
This dude's got a switch that just makes him normal.
That's how it was making me perceive it.
Our whole theory about how
the motor system works was challenged.
So the traditional way of thinking
about a spinal cord injury is that the brain
is the primary controller of movement and function,
but it turns out the spinal circuitry
is as smart as the brain.
It can learn, it can remember, it can forget,
and it can make decisions.
How we actually walk is this circuitry already has in it
the ability to generate patterns to walk.
As devastating as a spinal cord injury is,
that circuitry still has the ability to do that,
but it loses what we would call state of excitability.
So the epidural stimulator is
an off-the-shelf pain stimulator
that's used in people for pain.
It has a lead that's placed in the lower spinal cord,
and it generates an electric field.
So the stimulator actually helps those neurons
that are still viable, that are still alive,
to be able to function like they did before.
It's five days a week, two sessions a day.
I started with a toe.
And then it started with an ankle,
and then it started with a leg.
12 sessions in I got my first holt
of independence in standing.
It's gotten to the point now
where it just happens naturally.
I just lean forward on my walker
and think that I wanna stand, and I stand,
and my legs, they hold me.
When you immediately turn it on,
you don't really notice, but once you get a couple volts up,
it's like you feel the body charged and ready.
When you're trying, you feel that go through your head,
from your brain, down your spine, to that leg.
Give 'em some body weight support, keep them balanced,
and then people move their legs in a walking-like pattern.
That sends the right information about walking
back to the spinal cord, which it's expecting.
And because the spinal cord's smart
and it can learn, it starts relearning how to walk again
with that information and the person thinking about walking.
And over time, in some people,
they're able to step independently,
and in two people, walk completely independently
from physical assistance,
but just use a walker or canes to walk over ground.
The biggest thing is feeling it,
because after injury, you feel nothing.
And when you execute those movements, you feel them.
It's gonna be a really quick move.
Shift, and then load.
There you go.
I exploded a vertebrae.
What is known before all this
is there's no way, no how that I'd ever be able
to take a step again, but that's wrong.
The next step really needs to be to design one
that is very specific for the shoes.
So the device that we envision is akin to a smartphone.
It can be voice activated.
Says, okay, I wanna stand now.
So you have your stand program.
I wanna walk now, you have your walk program.
It has closed loop feedback.
The blood pressure is monitored.
Do all of this as autonomously as possible.
This is not a cure.
There's not going to be a silver bullet for this.
There's not anywhere, I think in the near horizon
where we're gonna completely regenerate
the spinal cord after an injury.
But if we can make an incremental change in function,
it improves their participation in life.
One of the things that hits you
when you're in the hospital,
am I ever gonna get married?
Am I gonna have kids?
And at this point, I'm married.
And the epidural stimulator program
gave me the ability to stand at my wedding.
As soon as she started walking down the aisle,
the emotion just hit me.
I don't really cry, but man, I was ballin'.
Even getting to dance with my mom.
That was so awesome.
And I feel so close to the kids thing.
I know it's comin'.