Charlotte veteran hopes to use electronic leg braces again

Veteran Chuck Wesson of Charlotte says his mom cried the first time she saw him stand up in ReWalk electronic leg braces.

Wesson has used a wheelchair since he was injured in April 2012 at Fort Campbell, Tenn. But for a few weeks during his recovery process, he stood up and walked with ReWalk during outpatient therapy at Carolinas Medical Center.

This month, more veterans got the chance to use ReWalk when the Department of Veterans Affairs agreed to pay for the device and train staff members to provide it. Veterans have been petitioning the VA to do this because many cannot afford the $77,000 needed to pay for the device.

ReWalk will be available at the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Hospital in Richmond, and company spokeswoman Jennifer Wlach said that’s the closest option right now for veterans in the Carolinas.

Wesson said he thinks the system won’t come to Salisbury’s W.G. Hefner VA Medical Center for a while.

“It’s gotta go through all the major (hospitals) first,” he said.

Wesson said he’d love to use the system again, but convincing the VA to accept out-of-system therapy has been a challenge.

Standing up offers health benefits, including working out core muscles and improving balance, he said.

“Your internal organs are where they’re supposed to be,” he said.

ReWalk is “definitely weird looking,” Wesson said. Along with bulky leg braces, the kit includes a belt, a backpack with battery, crutches and a nearby attendant, according to FDA rules. Wesson said he feels like a wheelchair attracts enough attention already.

But right now, all his plates are on his kitchen counter because his cabinets are out of reach. ReWalk could change that.

“It’s going to really take away a lot of annoyances about being in a wheelchair,” he said.

Wesson compared ReWalk with the early computers that took up entire rooms. Now smartphones can do the same work, and he thinks something similar will happen with leg braces. He expects the device to become less and less obtrusive as technology improves.

“They could be implanted into the edge of your legs,” he said.

Wesson’s confidence that ReWalk or devices like it will become commonplace matches the vision of Robbie Parks, an adaptive sports champion and director of marketing and product development for the Denver, N.C., company Crawford Composites.

In five years, Parks said, he thinks the system will have moved out of therapy center hallways and into everyday life, helping people reach “the really good stuff” on the top shelf at the grocery store.

Parks has used a wheelchair for 35 years, ever since he was injured in a car accident. He hasn’t tried ReWalk yet, but he said he plans to do so in early 2016.

“The opportunity to stand and walk again – I can’t put into words what that feeling would be like,” he said.

He said the VA’s support for ReWalk will benefit civilians, too, by making the system more visible and eventually less expensive.

“There’s a huge desire for it in the adaptive community,” he said, but the high cost has kept many away so far.

This story was originally published December 26, 2015 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Charlotte veteran hopes to use electronic leg braces again."