3/16/2023 0 Comments Marty stuart neck injury![]() ![]() Scientists theorize that walking is hard-wired into humans - not in the brain, but in the spinal cord itself. Two months of workouts had improved his balance and muscle tone to the point he didn’t even notice he was walking unassisted. The staff hunted around and found the crutches leaning against the wall near the tank, forgotten. “He said, ‘I’ve never had to ask this question before, but did I leave my crutches in the lab?'” Stevens said. Recently, Stevens said, one of her volunteers placed a call from the parking lot after his session. To the best of her knowledge, it’s the only study of its kind in the country. “They’re walking faster, their endurance is better, their aerobic fitness is up, it’s just a better quality of life,” said researcher Sandy Stevens, who is working toward her doctorate in human performance at MTSU. The water in the tank helps to support his weight, but the rest is all the work of Harris and his nervous system, working in ways that amaze even the scientist running the experiment. “You can’t feel your feet, so it still feels like it’s not really you walking,” said Harris, breathing hard and balancing himself against walls of the tank as his legs churned away below the surface.īut he really is walking. “In a way, it’s a small miracle,” said Harris, a 56-year-old engineer from Hendersonville who was paralyzed from the waist down by the crash of the small plane he was piloting in July 2005. Three times a week, volunteer James Harris wheels his chair up to a water-filled tank fitted with an underwater treadmill and maneuvers inside.Īs his feet touch bottom, an underwater treadmill kicks into gear and suddenly Harris - who hasn’t been able to will his feet to move since an accident that severed his spine - is walking. I used to walk like I was somebody in their 80s.” After four weeks in the study, “I’m walking faster. “I’ve been able to lift my right leg,” said Janette Rodgers, a 52-year-old grandmother from Murfreesboro whose neck was crushed in a car accident in 2007. But for paralyzed volunteers taking part in an MTSU study, walking in water is almost as amazing.įor the past eight weeks, university researchers have placed people with crippling spinal cord injuries on underwater treadmills - with impressive results. As miracles go, it’s not quite walking on water. ![]()
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