‘I’ll confound the prognosis that I’ll never walk again’

You can’t put a price on being able to hug your family standing upright.

Jack Kavanagh, 21, put on a bionic suit that allowed him to walk, looked his dad straight in the eye, and hugged him.

Almost two years ago, Jack from Dunshaughlin, Co Meath, broke his neck in a swimming accident.

He had spent the summer of 2012 working as a windsurfing instructor and lifeguard in Uisce, the Irish language water sport centre in Belmullet, Co Mayo.

At the end of August, he and his friends travelled to Albufeira in Portugal for a week-long holiday before starting their second year in college. On the first day, Jack ran down to the sea, dived into an oncoming wave, hit a sandbank, and broke his neck.

He has no feeling below his upper chest and has limited use of his arm and wrists.

Trinity College Dublin have been very supportive in helping him complete his pharmacy degree over an extended period.

“I have been told I’ll never walk again; I’m going to confound that prognosis,” said Jack.

He has already been back on his feet again wearing Ekso, a bionic suit with battery powered motors that drive the legs.

Jack said one of the first things he did after the accident was to get into the water and lie face-down because he did not want it to become something he feared. While he still enjoys the water, it no longer has the draw it once had.

However, he does not see his disability taking over his life.

“I say I am on a wheelchair, rather than in one,” he told Pat Kenny on Newstalk this week.

Jack is also hoping that technologies like the bionic suit just launched in Ireland by Jane Evans of RollingBall, will help him to walk again.

“I do an awful lot of exercise. For the upper body I use a hand bike that I cycle with my arms.

“I probably go to the gym three times a week; I do plenty of standing at the moment but it is static standing.

“The brilliant thing about the Ekso robotic suit is that you can bring movement, which is only natural, into your standing.

The wearable robot weighs about 40lbs but the person, who walks on foot plates, does not carry it because it goes all the way down to the floor.

Jack travelled to Cambridge last December for a therapy session that included walking in the Ekso suit for the first time. Standing up in the suit gave him a huge psychological boost and he could not belive how natural it felt to walk in it. “You lean forward onto your left foot and your right foot lifts up and then you alternate that. It is just very natural the way it happens.”

RollingBall was founded by Jane Evans to introduce robotic and automated therapy devices to Ireland. Ms Evans has been to Prime Physio near Cambridge and believes the type of therapy programme delivered there can be delivered in Ireland.

“It doesn’t have to be delivered in the context of specially designed stand-along rehab facilities. It can be incorporated into existing facilities,” she said.

The device is expensive, at €150,000, but Ms Evans believes there are individuals and organisations in Ireland who, together, could use it as part of their therapy programme.

“This is not rocket science. I am calling for support from the Government, from philanthropists, medical and therapy professionals and support groups to come together to ensure that another generation of people are provided with the options they so richly deserve.”

For Jack, however, the suit and the freedom it gives him is simply priceless. The first time he put on the suit his father was with him and he was delighted to be able to look him in the eye, man to man, and give him a big hug.

His mother and one of his sisters was with him the last time he got to walk in the suit. “Again, it was brilliant, just being able to give them a hug upright.

“Like, you can’t put a price on that kind of thing.”