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How a revolutionary technique got people with spinal-cord injuries back on their feet

Electrical stimulation has promised huge gains for people with paralysis. Now comes the hard part — getting beyond those first steps.
  1. Cassandra Willyard

    1. Cassandra Willyard is a science journalist based in Madison, Wisconsin.

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Rob Summers practices treadmill locomotive training at Frazier Rehab Institute in Louisville, Kentucky

Rob Summers has a complete spinal injury that doctors said would prevent him from walking. Credit: Luke Sharrett for Nature

Rob Summers was flat on his back at a rehabilitation institute in Kentucky when he realized he could wiggle his big toe. Up, down, up, down. This was new — something he hadn’t been able to do since a hit-and-run driver left him paralysed from the chest down. When that happened four years earlier, doctors had told him that he would never move his lower body again. Now he was part of a pioneering experiment to test the power of electrical stimulation in people with spinal-cord injuries.

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Nature 572, 20-25 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02306-z

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