Spinal cord implant helps paralysed patients walk again!

Tokyo: In 2017, Michel Roccati was in a motorbike accident that left his lower body completely paralysed. In 2020, he walked again, thanks to a breakthrough new spinal cord implant.

The implant sends electrical pulses to his muscles, mimicking the action of the brain, and could one day help people with severe spinal injuries stand, walk and exercise. It builds on long-running research using electrical pulses to improve the quality of life for people with spinal cord injuries, including a 2018 study by the same team that helped people with partial lower-body paralysis walk again. "It was a very emotional experience," Roccati told journalists of the first time the electrical pulses were activated and he took a step.