If there was a event at the Olympic Games for never giving up and always staying optimistic, then Mark Pollock would surely be the main contender for that gold medal.
His eternal optimism was rewarded when he was honoured by being selected to carry the Olympic torch when it was in Dublin this week.
Mark, who lost his sight in 1998 and was paralysed tragically in a fall in 2010, said, “I’m privileged and honoured to carry the Olympic flame.” He was nominated by Trinity College Dublin, the university he was studying at when he went blind.
“To have any sort of relationship with the Olympics, particularly when they are so close to us in London, is exciting,” said Mark cheerfully.
From a general point of view, Mark said it’s exciting to watch the elite sports people trying to win medals, but he is also excited as to what will happen after the Olympics, to see how the inspiration of the games helps people get more involved in sports.
“I think the relay of the torch coming to Dublin is all part of making the games real.”
Mark is working on a TV programme about some of the Irish Paralympians for a local broadcaster.
“I’ve been impressed at the level that they’re training at … I’m starting to understand the level of Paralympian involvement.”
Mark said that he is particularly impressed with London 2012 because, in his view, the Olympics and Paralympics are being marketed side by side on a par with each other, as one event. “I’m very excited at what that will do for peoples understanding of Paralympic sport, that it is at an elite level, just like the olympics,” said Mark.
Mark will travel to the UK later this week to test the robotic legs (the Ekso exoskeleton) he tried at Ekso Bionics in Berkeley, California earlier this year.
In February 2012, he visited “Project Walk”, a spinal injuries gym near San Diego, to ascertain what, if any, progress he had made since his first visit in 2011.
While there he unexpectedly got the opportunity to test out a robotic skeleton called the Ekso exoskeleton. “I was able to get into it, stand, and walk with a walker, and then with crutches,” explained Mark.
Since his accident Mark has been investigating what is currently available and what might be available in the future that would allow him to walk again.
Mark focused his efforts on three areas. The first was getting fit and strong again to try and reroute the nervous system around the damaged parts of his spine (Project Walk-type training).
The second area was technology, including the robotic legs, while the third may be some kind of medical intervention: stem cells, drugs, implants, etc.
Marks first Test with the Robotic Legs
“I had been doing the Project Walk training, as the robotic legs will probably be part of the overall package to help me walk again in the future. My big concern was that I would come along, get the opportunity to test them, but I would not be able to use them, either because of my paralysis or the blindness.
“I was a little bit worried that my old disability [the blindness], which started in 1998, was going to affect the opportunity for me to deal with my second disability [paralysis].”
“There is an issue there, I can’t see where I’m going, but the good news was that I was able to get around that, I was able to use them ... the reason I was able to use the robotic legs was, quite possibly, because I got fit and strong by attending Project Walk.”
The Legs
Mark says that the Ekso exoskeleton is radically different from being in a wheelchair. When you are in a chair, you’re closer to the ground, and always looking up at people.
“My first thoughts when I stood up in the Ekso exoskeleton were: I’m immediately looking people in the eye , face to face with people, even a little bit taller!”
As Mark started to move, assisted by the team at Ekso Bionics, he said that his co-ordination and his understanding of what the device would do and how to shift his weight, where to put his crutches, etc., made it a bit cumbersome, but that after a short period of time he got into the rhythm of it.
“In a few seconds I was up and I was walking, so you can imagine, they say it takes 10,000 hours to be an expert at anything, if I was in an exoskeleton for that amount of time I would be a pretty proficient user, but it’s not going to take that long,” said Mark, who believes that the technology needs to move on a bit to make it 100 per cent safe. It then starts to become a plausible, realistic mobility and independence device.
“It’s exciting, it’s here and it is very, very close to being a reality for an individual like me,” said Mark with a smile.
“If it works and it is safe and I could stroll through the city streets and stand listening to buskers, meet people, shake their hands and look them in the eye, if I could do that then it would be at a point where, the down side of paralysis ... would be taken out of the equation,” he said.
“On the one hand I’m really excited that I’m still a candidate, that I was up, that I was walking, that I have actually touched and felt the device ... but on the other side I couldn’t buy one there and then, they are not available even if I had the money. They aren’t available today... I’m sitting on the fence a bit with my emotions.”
Mark’s Chances of Success
According to Claudia Nanau, Marketing Communications Manager at Ekso Bionics, Mark should not face any additional challenges in using the Ekso than anybody else. “Everybody using the Ekso needs initial training and assistance to learn to strap the Ekso on, stand up, find their balance by using crutches, and learning to walk again. Mark has very good upper body strength, thus, he can transfer himself into the Ekso and strap it on by himself,” explained Ms Nanau.
The Track Record for such Equipment to Date
According to Claudia Nanau, so far there are more than 100 people walking in the device, and more than 160,000 steps have been taken. “Patients with different levels of spinal cord injuries have walked with Ekso assisted by a physiotherapist. Everybody who has experienced walking in the device could tell of improvements. Standing and walking has certainly psychological benefits.”
Ms Nanau said that, currently, ten of the top rehabilitation clinics in the US have started conducting trials to see how Ekso can be best integrated into their rehabilitation programmes, and seven clinics in Europe will follow shortly.
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