Challenging the impossible: Post-rehab centre gets people walking
To Walk Again, the non-profit that offers sports to those with mobility challenges, has opened Belgium’s first post-rehabilitation centre, where, with special technology, people can walk again
Rehab revolution
The To Walk Again foundation in Herentals, Antwerp province, has opened a new post-rehabilitation centre. Dubbed REVAlution, it is the only centre in Belgium devoted to people who have already gone through post-injury rehabilitation but want to maintain or improve their strength and muscle condition.
“Our clients have spinal cord injuries or are stroke patients or amputees,” explains Kris Goos, the centre’s manager and a physical therapist. “They are out of the acute phase of rehabilitation, so we offer them the chance to continue with adapted physical activities and exercises.”
To Walk Again is a non-profit organisation founded 13 years ago by Marc Herremans, a Flemish triathlete before becoming paralysed in a cycling accident. It organises sports, activities and adventure travel for people with limited mobility.
Walking on the moon
But Herremans never let go of his first goal when he was told he was paralysed: to walk again. The equipment at REVAlution gets the clients up on their feet and stimulates their muscles in a variety of other ways.
“If you can sustain these adapted activities, you can keep people off medications and prevent their muscles from atrophying,” says Goos. “You can also improve the secondary effects of their injuries such as bladder dysfunction, skin problems and neuropathic pain. This kind of therapy is also crucial for a patient’s mental health.”
REVAlution does this by strapping its clients to the most advanced equipment available on the market. Functional Electrical Stimulation, for instance, sends electrical impulses into a person’s muscles, allowing them to perform functions with limbs that would otherwise not move. At REVAlution, it allows the clients to cycle, even if they cannot normally use their legs.
People who are told they can never walk again are walking with exoskeletons,which has major psychological implications
The Dynamic Body Weight Support System, meanwhile, is a motorised device that follows a track on the ceiling. The client is strapped to it, and it lifts them, freeing them of up to 95% of their body weight. “It’s like walking on the moon,” says Goos.
Perhaps the most popular device, however, is the exoskeleton, a robotic device that fits on users’ legs and hugs the torso, allowing them to actually walk on their own. An exoskeleton is a prized possession for those facing paralysis, but each one costs about €170,000, so most people can only use it at REVAlution.
“We are working on raising money so that we can make this innovative therapy as accessible as possible,” says Goos. “People who are told they can never walk again are walking with exoskeletons. This has major psychological implications.”
10 provinces, 10 centres
REVAlution is the only centre in the Benelux using exoskeleton therapy “and we’re using it more extensively than any other centre in the entire world,” says Goos. “We have 84 patients who come in every week to use one of the exoskeletons.”
While every patient visit to REVAlution costs the centre about €200, patients pay just €8. The centre gets about €20 reimbursed by the health care system, and the rest is dependent on the private sector and donations.
The centre has several partner: Herentals Hospital, where it is based, as well as prosthetics and orthopaedic shoe manufacturer OVH Orthopedie in Leuven and Thomas More-Mobilab, a research centre in Geel for technological advancements in health and wellness. The centre cost €3 million to establish, 60% of which was provided by Efro Vlaanderen, the local EU fund for regional development.
Although just opened last month, REVAlution has big goals. It wants to open the same centre in every Belgian province. “We have patients from all over the country, but we know that we could help more people who cannot come to Antwerp province because of mobility or cost issues,” explains Goos. “We want to eliminate that barrier.”
About the author
Lisa Bradshaw is the editor-in-chief of Flanders Today. She worked as an editor and journalist in her homeland, the United States, before moving to the awesome city of Ghent in 2004. If she’s not in the office, she’s probably at a film festival.
