BY MATT HERSH
After she suffered a stroke last year, Lillian Tarr’s right hand was clenched into an unmovable fist. Now, she’s using it to pick up small wooden blocks.
Tarr, a resident of North Andover, Mass., is one of about 25 patients at Northeast Rehabilitation Center in Salem who are making use of the Bioness H200, a muscle stimulating device to help paralysis patients regain movement.
Tarr and John Couture, another stroke patient, demonstrated the success of the product by picking up small wooden blocks and placing them into a container. For the two patients, this would have been impossible only months ago.
Though the center only recently incorporated the product into its therapy program, Tarr has been using it for three months, achieving notable success.
Tarr’s stroke occurred after a yoga class last March.
“When we were finished I got a bad headache,” she said. “The instructor said ‘see you next week’ and I realized I couldn’t get up.”
When Tarr was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, she learned she had suffered a stroke and the right side of her body was mostly paralyzed.
After a week in the hospital, she became a patient at the rehabilitation center, where occupational therapists worked with her to regain some movement.
While Tarr was an inpatient for two months, some progress was made, but it wasn’t until she began using the Bioness H200 that she was able to move her wrist and fingers.
The device, which fits on a patient’s wrist and forearm, houses electrodes which send impulses into different muscles, spurring them to move automatically.
Through repeated exercises with the device, stroke patients like Tarr have been able to regain independent movement in their arms.
Therapists can even program a series of impulses into the device so patients can have customized exercise programs, according to Cindy Kelly, an occupational therapist at the facility.
Patients typically work with the Bioness three times a week, running through a variety of muscle exercises.
“I’ve seen phenomenal progress in such a short time,” Kelly said. “It gives the patients a lot of hope.”
The rehabilitation center unveiled the new technology on Tuesday, Feb. 27, in a presentation which included staff, patients, Bioness representatives, and Ron Roberts, a man from Texas who suffered a stroke about a year ago and can now use his formerly paralyzed hand to perform normal tasks.
“I bring hope from Texas,” said the 49-year-old. “Don’t give up and don’t let a stroke get in your way.”
Roberts spoke with enthusiasm and a thick Southern accent about his miraculous recovery with the Bioness, demonstrating the abilities he now has by picking up a cup of juice, which he was unable to do last year.
After using the device, Roberts was able to return to his job as a weatherman at a television news station in western Texas.
Like the center’s therapists, Roberts stressed the importance of determination and sticking with the Bioness program. Only through persistent exercise was he able to achieve his goal of hand functionality, he said.
Last year, Northeast Rehabilitation cared for more than 4,900 stroke patients, and adding the Bioness to the center’s list of tools is just another effort to incorporate new technology into their program, according to medical director Jim Whitlock.
“This tool can be used to greatly expand the practice that a person gets after an injury,” he said. “Devices like the Bioness will become and will remain an important tool.”
Currently, the facility has eight of the $6,200 devices and some patients have purchased their own for home use, Kelly said.
Whitlock said the facility is looking at acquiring a similar device designed to stimulate leg muscles.
Bioness Inc. was formed in 2004 by the Alfred Mann Foundation for Scientific Research, which also brought technologies like cochlear implants and pacemakers to the medical community.