Technology
David Mzee injured his spine in 2010, but a new study helped him regain mobility. In 2019, he inspired thousands by walking across the the Wings for Life World Run 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.
Mzee inspired the more than 120,000 registered runners and wheelchair participants by standing up from his chair and walking the first few metres across the start line on his own.
The 31-year-old, who was once told he would never walk again, covered 390m of the Wings for Life World Run course before he was caught by the Catcher Car, the race's moving finish line.
Mzee has been undergoing a new type of treatment in Zurich, called STIMO (Stimulation Movement Overground), which was announced last autumn.
Find out how you can take part in Wings for Life World Run and support spinal cord injury research.
Hear Mzee's story in his own words in the video at the top of this page.
A wonderful feeling
"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."
Mzee's story so far
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.
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.
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.
Wings for Life funded this study from its inception. You can make more of this kind of groundbreaking research possible by participating in the Wings for Life World Run.