Innovate to improve quality of life: "With a pediatric exoskeleton Juan managed to take 700 steps"

Four children with reduced mobility have had the opportunity to test a pediatric exoskeleton at the Miguel Servet Hospital in Zaragoza. The result, beyond "exciting", has been, according to the families, "very beneficial."

A smile lights up the face of Juan, 7 years old, when his parents, Pablo Celma and Marta Peña, ask him if he wants to walk. He can't speak, but his eyes say it all. He has Pelizaeus-Merzbacher, a rare disease that affects the central nervous system and impairs coordination, motor skills and intellectual function. Only he suffers from it in Zaragoza. Being able to move from one place to another is another challenge in your daily life. She achieves it thanks to a special walker that his parents had to take to a workshop to adapt it to his needs, but its benefits are diminished by the possible muscle and bone injuries that it can create by not achieving a correct gait pattern.      

"For children who use a wheelchair, standing up is, without a doubt, an achievement. But We must take into account the importance of correcting the gait. It is essential for this way of walking to be perfect, since this way results in an improvement in spasticity -when the muscles tense-", explains Pablo Celma, Juan's father. "Our son with the walker, yes, he can go step by step, but his brain does not know how to walk, so he moves as he considers, which is which has an impact precisely on his spasticity," says Marta Peña. 

To get your muscles to lose "that rigidity", Juan undergoes a toxin treatment every four months, in addition to going swimming and doing horse therapy. For their parents, achieving a minimal improvement is "a vital achievement." Something they saw exponentially when the little one was able to test a pediatric exoskeleton that the company Maxi Bionics gave to the Miguel Servet Hospital for testing as part of a research project.

For its part, fountains of the Miguel Servet Hospital confirmed to Heraldo de Aragón that the test with exoskeletons is "in research phase"Until there is scientific evidence, this type of treatment will not enter the portfolio of services," the same sources concluded.