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Wearable Robot Helps Paralyzed Detroit Firefighter Walk: MyFoxDETROIT.com

Here's a great interview with injured Rutgers football player Eric Legrand. He made the cover of Sports Illustrated too. We're doing a lot of similar things in our recoveries, which is cool. He's got a great attitude and is very inspirational. Check out a portion of his interview:

What's the status of your rehab at this point?:

"Since the injury occurred, I've been pretty successful. A lot of people didn't think I'd be where I'm at today. … I'm doing this walking program that's five days a week from 3-4:30. I walk for an hour and then I get on the mat and have to sitting up drills. I was able to sit up 35 seconds, 23 seconds by myself. I'm working to get to 30 by myself and just working every day on that. And, actually, the doctors are wondering how I'm doing that. They actually want to run a test on me to see now if I have the motor function below my injury, where I was hurt. So I'm very excited about that."

So you're doing stuff now that is defying medicine?:
"Oh yeah. From when they first told me I'd never walk again or come off the ventilator and I'd probably be on a feeding tube the rest of my life, they didn't think any of this. Now when they see me, it's like, ‘Wow.'"

When the accident first happened, did you know immediately you were in a lot of trouble or were you unconscious and not really knowing?:
"You know how in Hollywood movies, when somebody gets knocked out, you see stars and everything and the vision gets blurry? … You wonder if that's the real thing. Well, it is. As soon as I hit, everything was just blurry and I felt like I was seeing stars. When I got on the ground, I just could not breathe. I had the wind knocked out of me and everything. … I was like numb, like when you get it in your shoulder. I was just thinking it was a full-body stinger. … Then I couldn't move and I was like, ‘What's going on here?'"

Any regrets about playing football given what you know now?:
"No regrets. I believe everything happens for a reason. I was supposed to play for 15 years of my life. … Now I'm putting my passion toward football in another direction, toward sports broadcasting. It's something I always wanted to do, so I'd always be around the game of football."

Are there doctors out there that have projected that you will walk again?:
"I honestly can't tell. That's the thing with spinal cord research. I'm trying to spread awareness about it. It's so unknown and not a lot of people know about it. … You never know because everybody's injury is different and everyone's severity of it is different. The way I was, people never I would be where I'm at today, being here able to sit and talk to you. … The doctors honestly do not know."

Keep it up Eric!