The first step unfolded in unsteady, quivering motion.
Evan Faucett stood up, flanked by two physical therapists who supported him as he tried to walk. He leaned on a pair of crutches supporting his upper body, a bionic frame attached to his legs and torso.
He needed help on the first step, but then he took another, then a third. Soon, he was slowly walking around the perimeter of the therapy center at the Community Rehabilitation Hospital South.
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The fact that he could stand up, let alone walk, was a monumental feat. Faucett, 19, had been paralyzed from the middle of his chest down during a motocross accident in 2018. He has no usage of his lower body at all.
“It’s pretty cool to get up, to have smooth steps,” he said. “It loosens up my legs, so they’re not spastic.
Faucett’s accomplishments have come through the use of a device called the Ekso, a bionic exoskeleton that allows patients who have suffered spinal injuries or have had a stroke to rehabilitate and walk safely.
Few places in Indiana have the devices. But two of those facilities that do are in the Johnson County area: Community Rehabilitation Hospital South and Franciscan Health Indianapolis.
The ability to provide the device is life-changing for people who might need help taking that first step — or otherwise might never walk at all again.
“A huge piece of it is hope, giving patients that idea that they can stand back up and look someone in the eye,” said Rachael Adams, an Ekso area manager. “Stroke patients, they may feel very defeated after an event. Getting them back up and moving, to reengage with getting better, is so important.”
Ekso Bionics was initially started developing robotic suits for the military, to help able-bodied people carry heavier loads so they would not fatigue as quickly. But it was quickly determined that it could be useful in rehabilitation for patients with neurological injuries. At first, the focus was spinal cord injuries, though it was also approved in 2016 by the Food and Drug Administration to be used for stroke victims.
The device is strapped to a patient’s legs and torso, which allows the body move in the way it had before a stroke or spinal injury, Adams said.
Software reads and reacts to the patients’ abilities and condition, allowing them to give their full effort and assisting only as much as the person needs.
“It allows the patient to give whatever they have, to utilize whatever power they might have, and the Ekso just fills in the deficit. It really adapts to the patient, and will ideally start backing off as they get stronger,” Adams said. “The goal is for them to walk out of the device.”
Clinical research on the device is extensive, and repeatedly it has shown that using the Ekso GT allows patients to have better functional balance, be able to walk further after therapy and have a quicker gait speed once they’re finished with therapy.
Megan Burns suffered a spinal cord stroke in December 2015, which left her as an incomplete paraplegic. Using traditional therapy, she was able to strengthen her body to move from a wheelchair to a walker, eventually reaching the point where she could move with a cane and braces on her legs.
But after doing some research on her own, she learned more about the Ekso suit, and started using it at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago.
Burns went through 36 sessions in the device, and though the hospital was several hours away, her progress kept her making the long trip.
“After the first session, I found my balance. I had been leaning to the left for two years, because that was my cane side. By session five, we realized I hadn’t used my calves in two years. So now when I’m walking, I’m actually pushing. My brain is telling my calves to push,” she said. “By session 20, I was walking unassisted.”
Using the Ekso has helped Burns regain her mobility, her balance, her independence. And for the first time in years, she is able to resume one of her passions: golf.
“It’s a huge relief for me. I have my social life back,” she said.
The aspects that the device has helped Burns with has been helping Indiana patients for the past three years. Franciscan Health Lafayette Central was the first hospital in the state to use the system, and Franciscan Health Indianapolis purchased their own unit in late 2016.
When Community Health Network and Kindred Health Care jointly planned to open a southside rehabilitation hospital last July, the bionic device was one that officials made a priority to have, said Michelle McClelland, director of therapy operations at Community Rehabilitation Hospital South.
“We want to be a leader in this industry, so this really sets us apart. It gives us the ability to do all of these innovative, challenging things with these types of patients that we might not be able to do in other types of settings,” she said. “It gets the patients home sooner; they do better when they leave. It’s just really exciting to have this technology.”
Faucett started working with Community following his accident on July 9, 2018. The Kirklin resident had just received his professional riders card, and was envisioning a career in motocross.
He was riding in a competition in Kokomo when his bike crashed on a jump. He suffered a severe concussion, bleeding on the brain, a lacerated liver and a severed spinal cord.
After initially enduring treatment in the intensive care unit, he started rehabilitation and therapy. He goes to therapy five days a week. Though he cannot move his legs, therapists still work with him to move and exercise, in addition to strengthening the rest of his body.
The Ekso has been incredibly useful in doing that, said Victoria Faucett, Evan’s mother.
“It’s amazing. The day after using it, his therapists said that they noticed a difference. His gait was better. His steps seemed easier. So he loves it,” she said. “If we could have one at home, he’d have one at home.”
Faucett has been working with the physical therapy staff at Community Health as they have gone through initial and then advanced training on the Ekso device. Four of the staff members at Community Rehabilitation Hospital South are now certified to use it, and with Faucett’s help, the therapists are now prepared to help a wide range of patients heal using the machine.
And his participation has exemplified just what this device is able to do, McClelland said.
“For him, it’s the ability to stand up and look someone in the eye. It’s putting weight bearing down through his joints and bones. It’s helping with bone density and his blood pressure,” she said. “It gives him hope.”
