By Khalida Sarwari
A car accident earlier this year left 24-year-old Salinas resident Stephanie Sablan paralyzed from the waist down, but a new technology created by a Berkeley engineer may help her and other wheelchair users walk again.
The device is an artificially intelligent, bionic, battery-powered robot that patients who have paralysis or weakness in the lower extremities can strap on to help them stand up and walk.
“I’m used to being two feet shorter,” Sablan said this morning after demonstrating the robot or “eLEGS” for a roomful of reporters at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. “But just to be able to stand up and not have to reach for things … it filled a void that was taken away from me.”
In January, Sablan, who worked as a pharmacy technician, severed her spinal cord in a crash on U.S. Highway 101 in Watsonville. She said she had been texting and was not wearing her seat belt at the time.
Since then, Sablan has been coming to the Valley Medical Center for therapy once a week, where she has been using the robot as part of her rehabilitation.
The hospital is one of 10 medical centers nationwide and the only one in California participating in the clinical trials.
The machine was created by Berkeley Bionics, a Berkeley-based lab that develops and manufactures powered and artificially intelligent human exoskeletons for military, civilian and medical uses.
Dr. Adam Voss, a senior engineer at Berkeley Bionics, said the device, which weighs around 50 pounds, was designed to carry its own weight.
“It’s cutting edge technology … you can see the result first-hand,” Voss said. “We’re making a contribution to helping people.”
The robot is currently being rotated around the 10 hospitals selected for the trial. Voss said the long-term goal is to have it available for patients to purchase and take home sometime in 2013.