An Iraq War Army Veteran who was left unable to walk can now use an exoskeleton to move around without aid.
Richie Neider of Phoenix received a spinal cord injury from an IED explosion during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2005, leaving him wheelchair-bound after scar tissue complications in 2013.
Now, using a ReWalk Personal 6.0 Exoskeleton, he can walk on his own for the first time in nearly 10 years.
"I'm now getting to go out to the real world with it other than just training and simulating it," Neider told AZFamily. "Now I'm the stand-up guy! After ten years of not walking, it's one of the most amazing feelings. You don't forget how to walk, your brain always tells you."
Developed by ReWalk Robotics, the exoskeleton works by detecting shifts in the user's center of gravity, using a forward lean to take the first step—with battery-power motors in the hip and knee joints moving the legs in a natural human gait.
Human exoskeletons have been in development for years to aid mobility for paralyzed people as well as increase strength and endurance for people with strenuous jobs and for military uses. In 2014, this ReWalk exoskeleton was approved for commercial use by the federal government.
"It can be used for someone who is completely paralyzed but can also be used by people who have some ability to walk but have difficulty," Dan Bonaroti, a physical therapist and owner of Touchstone Rehabilitation, told the MailOnline. "It's almost a bigger purpose for the second reason, that it expands people with stroke and incomplete spinal cord injury."
Nieder is the first Phoenix Veteran to take home a ReWalk through the Veterans Affairs program, which fully paid for the $75,000 exoskeleton. The Veterans are trained to use the ReWalk over the course of 28 sessions and then allowed to take it home for a brief rental period.
Not only does this device help people walk again, but the regaining of their independence can also be hugely beneficial to their mental health, per ReWalk. According to one study from 2008, 48.5 percent of people with a spinal cord injury suffered from mental health problems, with 37 percent experiencing depression.
"The biggest disability is not my inability to walk, but the way I was looking at things," said Neider. "It was the mental side of it. Once I figured that out, I was able to just start moving forward and realize I can do everything everybody else is doing. I just do it a little bit differently."
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