SAN ANTONIO -- A young San Antonio woman whose life was changed forever by a car crash is part of an amazing clinical trial. She’s helping test a device that allows paraplegics to walk on their own.
Putting one foot in front of the other to propel herself down the hall is something Lainy Loyola thought she might never do again. In April 2008, a high-speed, one-car rollover accident on 1604 turned the Churchill High School student into a paraplegic.
“I was ejected from the car and the car had flipped four times,” Loyola explained. “And it severed my spinal cord completely.”
The bright, happy cheerleader had to relearn how to do almost everything. “It’s been hard,” she admitted. “It’s been really hard.”
For the past eight weeks, Lainy has been part of a clinical trial at Moss Rehab in Philadelphia, helping test an Israeli device called ReWalk. It’s a suit with motorized joints that allows the patients to trigger the stepping mechanism.
“It feels so good when you’re standing,” Loyola said. “My pain instantly goes away. I don’t know if it’s because my spine’s completely straight or what it is, but when I’m standing, it goes away.”
Dr. Alberto Esquenazi is the director of the gait lab at Moss Rehab and is overseeing the clinical trial of ReWalk at that facility. “Although the device is motorized,” he said, “each individual patient sets his own pace of walking and can control when to take a step, when to stop, when to restart walking.”
Walking has potential physiological benefits for paraplegics, helping with everything from blood pressure to bone density.
Loyola’s one of 12 people helping test the upright device designed to get wheelchair patients back on their feet.
“I feel very honored to be in it,” she commented. “I’m also the youngest one in it. Second girl. So it’s been an amazing experience.”
“Progress is happening,” Esquenazi stated. “And although we don’t have a cure for spinal cord injuries, we have interventions that will allow these patients to function in a much more normal manner.”
Loyola’s family is amazed at the teen’s progress. “I want to walk again,” she said.
The next step is an updated model of ReWalk, a hospital version and one for at-home use. They may become commercially available in the next 12 to 18 months.
