Technology
Paralysed David Mzee makes history by walking at Wings for Life World Run
David Mzee injured his spine in 2010, but a recent study helped him regain mobility and stunned researchers. Now he's inspired thousands by walking across the Wings for Life World Run 2019 start line.
David Mzee, who was paralysed in a 2010 gymnastics accident, helped launch the 2019 Wings for Life World Run on Sunday, May 5 by making history, as he got up from his wheelchair and walked over the start line in the Swiss town of Zug.
The charity running event, which raises money to find a cure for spinal cord injury, is a joyous scene. The simultaneous global start at 11am UTC was even more special this year however, as in a first-of-its-kind moment Mzee inspired the more than 120,000 registered runners and wheelchair participants by standing up from his chair and walking the initial metres across the start line on his own.
Eventually, the 31-year-old – who was told that he would never walk again before intensive rehabilitation in Zurich using the new type of treatment gave him hope of a different future – covered 390m before being caught by the event's iconic Catcher Car moving finish line. With each step he brought to life the real human impact of a technologically complex STIMO research breakthrough announced last fall.
"It was overwhelming. My maximum was six minutes of walking in the clinic on smooth surfaces and without this weather, and now I did 30 minutes with five or six breaks, which is a record for me," said Mzee, who couldn’t stop smiling even as hailstones bounced off his shoulders.
"It's exciting to see that people are touched and inspired by my story, and especially in the beginning with all the people passing by and clapping, that was breathtaking."
Hear Mzee's story in his own words in the video below:
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David Mzee explains how he was able to walk again
After a triple-flip in a gym session in 2010 went badly wrong, David Mzee was paralysed – but thanks to a groundbreaking trial he's now ready to walk across the Wings for Life World Run start line.
What’s the background story?
Mzee’s doctor told him he’d never walk again after his gym accident, but then he and two other men, 35-year-old Dutchman Gertjan Oskan, knocked down by a car, and 48-year-old German Sebastian Tobler, critically injuried in a cycling accident, embarked on a trial with the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) in Switzerland.
The aim was to see if electrodes could stimulate movement in the parts of the spine damaged so badly that signals no longer reach the nervous system from the brain.
Watch a video below about the STIMO (Stimulation Movement Overground) study.
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Walking Tall
David Mzee injured his spine doing sport seven years ago. Until recently he would’ve remained permanently paralysed, but a new study’s success in helping him regain mobility has stunned researchers.
How did it work?
Instead of attempting to stimulate the whole spine, Prof Grégoire Courtine developed electrodes that targeted specific areas of the spine and nervous system to ‘boost’ signals the brain sends for voluntary movement of the legs. Leading neurosurgeon Prof Jocelyne Bloch performed the complex procedure to insert the electrodes in Mzee’s body.
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What happened?
It worked! Thanks to the electrodes making up for the weakness of the signals in his damaged spinal cord, Mzee voluntarily moved his legs and could walk several hundred metres at a time, sometimes without the aid of the rails on the treadmill. When venturing outside, a unique watch controlled by his own voice is able to turn the electrodes on and off when necessary.
What happens next with STIMO?
After a while, the impulses can become uncomfortable, and outside the lab it’s very difficult for Mzee to walk far. But what stunned the scientists is that the electrical impulses and re-use of the nerves actually encouraged regrowth of the neurological lines of communication and allowed Mzee briefly to move his legs voluntarily without the electrodes switched on!
It’s not a cure, but it’s a hopeful sign that if the technology can be developed it will one day improve the independent movement and quality of life for paralysed people.
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