WATCH: Vancouver’s GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre has taken delivery of a brand new exoskeleton. Elaine Yong tells us how they hope it will help some patients walk again.
It may have been originally designed for military applications, but today an exoskeleton is helping people in B.C. recover from injuries that would have been crippling a generation ago.
“It’s awesome. To be able to stand again, the pride of it….it’s amazing,” says Bob Thomas, a patient at G.F. Srong Rehabilitation Centre.
He’s one of eight patients at the centre who use the suit as part of their regular physical therapy. It allows people with paralysis to stand and walk, and helps those less injured to relearn how to walk again.
The suit costs $130,000 and was donated by Mark Tompkins of of Montrose Capital Partners and Bridging Bionics Foundation, a non-profit corporation from the United States.