Tutors Used to Speed Recovery of SCI Patients During Therapy

The SIERRRA SUN on January 9, 2012 reports about Jake Hickman who was on top of the world, still relishing two of the best performances of his life as he skied through a training run on Day 3 of the U.S. Freestyle Selections in Colorado.
However, the next moment, the 17-year-old Squaw Valley Freestyle Team standout was sprawled on the snow with no feeling from his belly button down. He could not move his right leg, and felt a tingling sensation in his left leg.
It was a freak accident, explained his father, Eric, who scurried to his son’s side.
He caught his tip and got thrown backwards a little bit,” said Eric Hickman, recalling the Dec. 23 accident. “He was going to land on his neck and he decided that that wasn’t a good idea, so he threw a loop and landed on his back instead. It was a good decision on his part, otherwise it could have been a lot worse.”
Jake was secured to a backboard and rushed to a local hospital. Then he was flown to Denver Health Medical Center where he underwent an eight hour surgery to repair the T7-T8 spinal cord injury. His father said he suffered a compression fracture and dislocation of the vertebrae, causing a pinch to the spinal cord. 10 screws and two 16-centimeter rods were placed into his back.
For that Jake feels fortunate. He and his family are also relieved that he seems well on the road to recovery, even walking with assistance about four or five days after the accident.
“He’s able to stand and walk, just barely, holding on to us. So things are looking pretty good.” says his mother.
On Tuesday he was transferred to Craig Hospital in Denver, which specializes in spinal cord injuries, rehabilitation and research. Jake had a chance to discuss his injury briefly between rounds of testing and medication.
“I’m getting better, I’m working on it. But it’s definitely pretty hard”, Jake says.
Spinal Cord Injury is one of many disabilities that are vastly improved by the use of the TUTOR system.
Occupational therapists use the HANDTUTOR,ARMTUTOR, LEGTUTOR, 3DTUTOR – known as the TUTOR system as a manual therapy tool to help them with their rehabilitative work.
The TUTOR system has shown much success in rehabilitation of joint movement. The newly developed TUTORs consist of ergonomic wearable devices. The HANDTUTOR is a glove for hand therapy and the ARMTUTOR is an arm brace for elbow and shoulder rehabilitation. The system is indicated for patients who have suffered a stroke, head/brain injury, SCI, CP, MS, Parkinson’s disease and other mobility restraining illnesses. It is used by occupational therapists and physiotherapists in rehabilitation centers, private clinics and the home where it can be supported by telerehabilitation. It is designed for those who have head, trunk, upper and lower extremity movement dysfunction.
The system consists of motivating and challenging games that allow the patient to practice isolated and/or interjoint coordination exercises. The dedicated rehabilitation software allows the physical and occupational therapist to fully customize the exercises to the patient’s movement ability. In addition the OT and PT can make objective follow up and reports on their patients progress. Rehabilitation aims to optimizes the patient’s motor, sensory and cognitive performance and allows the patient to better perform everyday functional tasks to improve their quality of life. The TUTORs are certified by the FDA and CE See WWW.HANDTUTOR.COM for more information.