Alexian robot helps stroke victims get up and go

Toddlers learn to walk in part by falling. Now stroke victims can relearn to walk the same way - with the help of a robot that catches them before they go down.

Cal Gord knows firsthand. Last year, the 61-year-old awoke from a stroke on the floor of his home in Roselle, with the right side of his body partially paralyzed. Now - thanks to therapy with a robot - he can walk a mile a day.

The KineAssist Robot is the latest high-tech advance in a movement toward using computerized devices to help stroke victims relearn basic daily actions.

It's available only at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and Alexian Rehabilitation Hospital in Elk Grove Village, where Gord demonstrated the device Wednesday.

The robot, which stands about 6 feet tall and weighs 600 pounds, has a harness which straps onto the patient and sensors to tell where the patient wants to move, so it can follow along like a dance partner. If the patient starts to fall, the robot's software can detect that and keep the person upright.

When Gord slipped off a 10-inch step and fell back, the robot steadied him before he even lost balance.

Research shows it's by learning from such mistakes, co-developer Dr. David Brown said, that the brain can rewire itself to relearn skills lost to a stroke.

As the population ages, the demand for innovative physical therapy is growing. Nearly 800,000 people suffer a stroke in the United States each year, and most are severely disabled.

Traditional rehabilitation requires a therapist to hold the patient up with a gait belt around the waist. In Gord's case, his physical therapist, Linda Foster, had her hands full, because she weighed only half of Gord's 200 pounds.

The robot is not meant to replace therapists, but to help them. Instead of therapists having to stand close to their patients to hold them up, they can stand apart and concentrate on coaching them.

The main advantage, Foster said, is that physical therapists - or terrorists, as they're jokingly called by some patients - can now challenge their patients to work outside their comfort zone, without fear of a fall.

The robot can even give the patient a slight shove while walking, to practice getting jostled in a crowd or on a bus.

Other robots, such as the Lokomat, also help people walk, but work on a treadmill. The KineAssist is the first robot, said Dr. Elliot Roth, chief academic officer of the Rehabilitation Institute, to help people ambulate on the ground, which makes it a "breakthrough technology."

Only four prototype robots exist, developed by Kinea Design of Evanston, with the help of nearly $3 million in federal grants.

To test its robot over the next year, Alexian is looking for up to 30 recent stroke victims who can walk to participate in a six-week rehab program. Anyone interested should call Foster at (847) 640-5600, ext. 3752.

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Video</h2> <ul class="video"> <li><a href="/multimedia/?category=16&type=video&item=11">Clip of the robot in action </a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>