((PKG))  BIONIC BODIES -- EXOSKELETONS   
((Banner:  Bionic Bodies)) 
((Reporter:  Crystal Dilworth)) 
((Camera:  Austin Harris))  
((Adapted by:  Zdenko Novacki)) 
((Map:  Wallingford, Connecticut))    
((Main characters:  2 males;  2 females))  
((Popup Banner:  Exoskeletons are wearable robots for 
enhanced independent mobility)) 
((NATS)) 
((Matt Tilford, Paraplegic))  
When I was 18 years old, I was in a motor vehicle accident 
and I sustained a T-12 burst fracture to my spinal cord.  It left 
me paralyzed from the waist down.   
((NATS)) 
((Jillian Harpin, Paraplegic))  
My friends and I were getting ready to go out to dinner and I 
had stepped out on to the balcony to make a phone call and I 
went to go sit on the railing and I just fell right back off of it 
and I landed on the ground 3-stories below.  The next thing I 
remember, I was in the medical clinic.  I had to re-learn 
everything that I had taken for granted so few weeks before.  I 
remember a big goal of mine was to put on my pants by 
myself.   
((NATS)) 
((Jess McNair, Stroke Survivor))  
I suffered multiple strokes.  The process of being strapped in 
makes you feel more and more secure because there are 
many, they kind of pinpointed the areas where people would 
feel kind of sensitive.  The machine really supports you.  This 
is like a big hug around my waist.  
((NATS)) 
((Jillian Harpin, Paraplegic))  
My physical therapist told me that it was possible for me to 
get in this exoskeleton device and get up and start walking 
again and that was news to me.   
((NATS)) 
((Jack Peurac, HCEO, Ekso Bionics)) 
Ekso Bionics was originally a research project at UC 
Berkeley.  They were studying how to make soldiers be able 
to carry more capacity further without injuring the soldiers 
and that technology developed all kinds of different human 
wearable robotics that could allow people to do things they 
otherwise they couldn’t do.   
((NATS)) 
((Jillian Harpin, Paraplegic))  
The first time I stood up in Ekso, it was a little terrifying but so 
exciting.  But once I got the hang of it, it was so great.  I 
couldn’t get the smile off of my face.  It’s crazy to think that in 
just a year-and-a-half, I went from my normal life to the lowest 
point in my life back to basically where I was before if not 
better. 
((NATS))