Miracle Man Moves Once Again

Twelve years ago, a motorcycle accident in China left Gert-Jan Oskam, now 40, paralysed. Now, in 2023 Oskam is back on his feet and walking thanks to a device created by scientists in Switzerland that creates a “digital bridge” between his brain and the nerves below his injury. This tech was created to help people who are paralysed move again. Doctors implanted a device that can read Gert-Jan’s brainwaves and send instructions to his spine to move the right muscles

The team used artificial intelligence to decode the brain signals for movements like hip and knee flexions and ankle movement. Mr. Oskam underwent two operations, one to place an implant in his brain and another to place an implant in the spinal cord. Gregoire Courtine, a professor of neuroscience at the Polytechnique Federale in Lausanne, said: “what has been truly remarkable is that by closing the loop between the brain and the spinal cord we further promoted the growth of new fibres, and this neurological recovery is quite remarkable.” The man himself, Gert-Jan said: “I’ve been waiting ten years to stand up with a friend for a beer.”

We believe that this technology can and will be used to help more disabled people walk again and we think that this tech could be developed so that you do not need to always be carrying multiple accessories. This tech is great, but Gert-Jan still needs to learn to walk again, after more than a decade of immobility, Gert-Jan Oskam says he now feels “like a toddler re-learning to walk.”

By Stanley P and Tom B