The robot that helped a B.C. man walk again, and his quest to bring it to patients like him

There was a time when doctors told Michael Coss that he might never recover from a near-fatal car accident on the Coquihalla Highway.

In 2006, he was left with a traumatic brain injury that put him in a coma for six months, and would force him into a power chair for seven years.

Today, he can walk again without too much help.

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For his efforts, Coss was honoured with a Courage to Come Back Award for Physical Rehabilitation in 2012.

And he said his mobility today is largely thanks to the Lokomat, a machine used in physiological rehabilitation that includes a treadmill, a harness and robotic attachments.

Its aim — to help you re-learn to walk on your own two feet.

“I would say that machine was what enabled me to walk today,” Coss told Global News.

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“It has given me a sense of confidence.”

The Lokomat is operated by physiotherapy clinic Neuromotion.

Helpful though it is, there are only two places in British Columbia where you can access it: Victoria and Vancouver — and the Lokomat in the latter location is occupied as much as eight hours per day, six days a week.

There is a third machine at UBC, but it’s only available to researchers.

So Coss has partnered with Neuromotion’s clinic in Surrey in a bid to raise $500,000, enough to bring a Lokomat there.

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“There is an overwhelming need and demand, especially in the Fraser Valley, for access to the Lokomat gait therapy,” Pauline Martin, owner of Neuromotion Physiotherapy Surrey, said in a news release.

If the Lokomat were self-funded, it would cost patients $500 per session.

That’s something Neuromotion hopes to avoid.

Anyone who wants to contribute can to go the Project Lokomat website.