Exoskeleton helps paralyzed man walk for the first time

By Barney Riley via SWNS

A man who became quadriplegic after breaking his neck skiing has walked for the first time with the help of an exoskeleton.

Anthony Mouravski, 24, said he felt like a "super soldier" after walking across a room with the help of technology.

A video shows Anthony harnessed into the robotic device and walking across the room assisted by one of the rehabilitation workers at Wandercraft during a session.

The exoskeleton, named Atalante X, was created by Wandercraft, a French tech company.

The device works by sensing shifts in your body's positioning to activate.

Leaning forward would result in the operator standing up while using shoulders and rotating the body as much as possible would result in walking forward.

Speaking of his first experience, Anthony said: "It felt extremely amazing. It was able to get me standing up within minutes.

"I had no adverse reactions to it, which for me could have been muscle spasms.

"It also just felt amazing for the body including my cardiovascular health and every other muscle that was activated.

"Just by being upright and trying to force the exoskeleton to walk."

The business administrator from Short Hills, New Jersey, became quadriplegic after completely severing his spine in a freestyle skiing accident in 2021.

Anthony said: "My condition is a C5/C6 Complete, which means that I completely severed the spinal cord.

"I used to do a lot of freestyle skiing but I broke my neck doing a jump.

"I have shoulder and bicep muscles but limited wrist muscles and no triceps or fingers or anything else.

"I have no sensation below my chest but it felt good to be walking again."

After two and a half years without proper exercise, using the device proved to be tricky.

Anthony said: "It was definitely somewhat difficult as it had been the most of an upper body workout that I've gotten in the last two and a half years.

"I was able to get used to it right away and they even started lowering the assistance on the device so I was pushing myself more and more as the hour progressed.

"I'm going back on August 15th and I'm going to be starting twice a week for as many months as I can afford."

The service costs £1,742 ($2,250) for 10 sessions.

Due to complications with health insurance, Anthony and his family have started raising money on GoFundMe and hope to raise £11,600 ($15,000).

Despite the cost, Anthony is looking forward to the future as technology like this will help him and others with similar conditions.

Anthony said: "The future for people like myself and other mobility-related disorders It's definitely really good in this regard.

"The training that you get from this seems very beneficial to future health including musculature, digestive And cardiovascular."

Anthony's fundraiser can be found here.