LAURA LING: Matt Tilford was just 18-years-old
and two weeks away from graduation
when, on a camping trip with friends,
his truck sped off a cliff, falling 600 feet.
MATT TILFORD: The truck started to tumble,
and I wasn't wearing my seatbelt.
I was ejected as we were going down the hill.
LAURA LING: Do you remember going off
that cliff and landing?
MATT TILFORD: I was going in and out of consciousness,
and I didn't realize until I looked down.
And that's when I realized, it's like, oh man, I am paralyzed.
This is serious.
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LAURA LING: As someone who thrived in the outdoors
playing sports, Matt was suddenly confronted
with an entirely new reality.
MATT TILFORD: I was definitely freaking out.
I was thinking of my future, what I was going to do.
LAURA LING: He had to relearn the most basic tasks,
like how to get dressed, wash, move around.
MATT TILFORD: After my accident, I came home
and I was depressed.
I didn't want to leave home.
Watching my friends go off to college and start their life,
I felt left behind.
LAURA LING: Four years later, Matt
got a life-changing opportunity to test out
a new exoskeleton rehabilitation device being
designed by Ekso Bionics.
What was that like, to put on that exoskeleton suit?
How did that feel?
MATT TILFORD: It felt absolutely amazing to be
bearing my own weight, my legs holding myself up
within that device.
It was surreal.
LAURA LING: The suits help people with spinal cord
injuries, or those who have suffered a stroke,
stand and take steps, something many
are told they'll never be able to do again.
How does the technology work, and how does it
work with the body?
RUSS ANGOLD: Think of it as a wearable robot,
and it has four actuators that replace the user's muscles.
And then the user interacts with it
by actually shifting their weight,
just like you would go to take a step.
LAURA LING: The exoskeletons are accessible around the country
at hospitals for rehabilitative uses,
in hopes that one day the patient will no longer need
the suit to walk.
RUSS ANGOLD: By having that sort of interaction where they're
in control of the device, that keeps the signals coming down
from the brain, trying to walk.
At the same time, they're getting that therapy,
and their legs are going through a very natural gait.
So that signal's getting sent back up,
and that's really what you want is that collision of signals
to help with the neuroplasticity and to help
them regain that ability to walk without the device.
LAURA LING: Given the scope of Matt's injuries,
it's unlikely he'll ever walk without an exoskeleton,
but that doesn't mean the suit doesn't
have other major benefits.
MICHAEL GLOVER: It gives them that sense of independence back
a little bit.
There are other benefits just of being upright.
You might have improvements of your bowel and your bladder
function.
Some people have some pain stemming from their nerves
because they're just in that improper position.
That sometimes goes away with some folks.
LAURA LING: So this is the history of some of the things
that you've built over the years.
RUSS ANGOLD: Exactly right.
They go all the way back to 2006.
This was our [INAUDIBLE] exoskeleton.
This is a medical exoskeleton that has six actuators, so
powered ankles.
Some devices for powering your knees
for military applications.
And the last one's our industrial chassis prototype
for construction industrial workers.
LAURA LING: The history of the exoskeleton goes way back.
In 1890, Russian inventor Nicholas Yagn
patented the first exoskeleton powered by compressed gas bags
to assist with blocking, jumping, and running.
Whether it was ever built is unknown.
In the 1960s, General Electric and the US military
created the Hardiman suit using electricity and hydraulics,
but the device was so dangerous and uncontrollable it was never
powered on with a person inside.
Even more recent models in the early 2000s
were considered too heavy.
But around 2005, battery technology
became a game changer.
RUSS ANGOLD: We figured out how to do it efficiently.
We had the lightweight materials and structures,
and then we had the computing processing power,
which is a key one to actually bring it all together
and make it work.
LAURA LING: Other companies, such as suitX and ReWalk
Bionics, are designing suits for patients
to use in their everyday lives at a price
tag of around $70,000 per suit.
Ekso is also working on technology
that could potentially impact the over 17 million people
in the construction industry, who perform rigorous work
with heavy machinery.
RUSS ANGOLD: We now have a product out there that really
makes their tools weightless.
And that doesn't seem like much until you
try to operate a 35-pound tool all day long,
and it's just exhausting.
LAURA LING: It's true, though.
I mean I can't imagine doing that up and down
up and down all day long.
RUSS ANGOLD: Right, so now grab it.
There you go.
LAURA LING: Oh wow.
It is weightless.
That's amazing.
What do you think the potential is in this technology?
MICHAEL GLOVER: I'm not sure that I can see an end point.
I believe that there could be those pants one day,
that is your exopants that are so low profile that it
can support somebody.
LAURA LING: For now, Matt continues
to test Ekso Bionics technology and rediscover the ability
to do things he once thought would be impossible.
MATT TILFORD: I wanted to prove people that I was still
going to be OK.
I still going to be successful.
I learned how to still be active with sports.
I waveboarded and snowboarded, and once I did,
it was absolutely amazing.
LAURA LING: What does it feel like when
you're in the suit today?
MATT TILFORD: I think every time I go from sit to stand,
a smile comes on my face.
Just knowing that I'm at eye level with everyone else.
It's going to give people the opportunity
to do things that they weren't able to do before.
And it's cool to be at the forefront of it.
LAURA LING: On another episode of Seeker--
TRACE DOMINGUEZ: It's taken hundreds of years
to understand how Earth's magnetic field works.
But now that we do, scientists are
trying to find hints from Earth's history that
might reveal the future of this ever-changing invisible field
all around us.
LAURA LING: Thanks for watching, and be
sure to subscribe to Seeker.
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