breakthrough

Stroke Victims Get a Helping Arm from ‘Rupert’

By Darla Sitton
CBN News Producer

CBN.com – (CBN News) - An estimated 750,000 Americans suffer from a stroke every year. And while half a million of them generally survive, many are left with some type of disability.

But new technology may give some survivors the help they need to get well. A high-tech device helps stroke survivor Nancy Wheelen re-gain the use of her right hand. The stroke damaged the area of her brain that controlled the hand.

Wheelen says, "It's a beautiful merger of technology with empathy."

The robotic arm, called 'Rupert', meaning "robotic upper extremity repetitive therapy," guides her over and over as she practices picking up a cup on a computer screen. Doctors say that, in time, it should help her to resume normal movement.

Dr. Jiping He, from the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, remarks, "This repetitive therapy is more teaching the brain, than teaching the muscle."

Somehow the brain is highly adaptable, and can be trained to fill in the gaps for the areas that don't function well.

Chief Neurologist Dr. Laura Lennihan, from Helen Hayes Hospital, comments, "As we know from musicians who get to Carnegie Hall; practice, practice, practice. And that is true for people recuperating from a stroke."

And although it may take a long time, 'Rupert' can give patients the practice they need to gain back control.

Dr. Lennihan says, "Of course, a robot, a machine, is going to be expensive. But once it's built and it works, it could spend hours with someone, practicing things."

And that is just what stroke victim Bruce Mitchell needed. Without Rupert, Mitchell cannot lift a bottle. But with it, he is steadily improving.

'Rupert' is still in the experimental stage, but researchers say that someday the robotic gadget may help thousands of stroke victims to re-gain their movement.

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