Mobility impacts the way we see the world and the way the world sees us.
Michelangelo said, “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.”
The human body is designed to coordinate and balance movement between the left and right side of the body with the feet contacting the ground from heel to toe with the head upright to engage and maintain the strength of the core muscles that maintain upright posture, balance and stability. The ability to develop and maintain that kind of movement is a head-to-toe process that impacts physical, cognitive, and psychosocial abilities. In individuals born with conditions that affect mobility learning how to walk does not always follow a predictable pattern of development. The way the body is aligned and moves when walking affects the quality and quantity of a person’s independence, balance, stability, muscle strength and upright posture.
Traditional canes, crutches and walkers are not designed to maintain upright posture and the alignment of the spine and weight bearing joints. They are designed to maintain balance at the expense of the body's alignment. Continued use of traditional canes, crutches, walking sticks and walkers does not result in strengthening the core muscles or the body's alignment. They cause an unnatural walking gait because of the way way they force the body to be aligned and moved to maintain balance. This is unrelated to age, injury or a condition that a person is born with. To maintain balance when using traditional canes, crutches and walkers, the user’s arm or arms must extend away from the body and forward or towards the cane, crutch or walker handle or handles. The head, the line of sight, as well as the top of the spine are drawn downward and forward in front of the rest of the body. The user's step and stride become smaller and less stable. When you look down when you walk the size of your visual field becomes smaller as does your level of balance and cognitive processing speed. Your feet become unable to contact the ground from heel to toe and engage the core muscles that maintain upright posture and the alignment of the spine and weight bearing joints.
The minimum standard for all crutches, canes and walkers should be that they help people move better, get stronger and walk longer helping them maintain or develop better posture, more muscle strength and a more normal step stride and walking gait. They should not force people to continuously misalign and move their body’s in ways they were never designed for to maintain balance. The result of using mobility devices that misalign and move the body in ways it was never designed for is a stiff stooped unnatural gait and secondary or acquired disability that leads to a loss of muscle strength, postural alignment and mobility. When mobility devices keep users more upright when they walk, their muscles get stronger, their body maintains more postural alignment and they can move better and walk longer. When you walk with your head upright and you have a larger visual field, faster cognitive processing speed and better balance. You also have more confidence, stability, vertical joint alignment and less pain.
In January of 2013 I became physically disabled in a life altering car accident. I was told by my surgeons after two years of surgeries and procedures that I would never walk upright or normally again. I realized two things when I started relearning how to walk in April of 2015 The first was that the reason that I was so badly disabled was not from my car accident. It was from the acquired or secondary disability caused from the way my crutches, walker, leg brace and traditional canes and walking sticks had continuously misaligned and forced my healing body to be aligned, positioned and moved to maintain balance. The second was that if I kept using traditional canes, walking sticks and crutches, my surgeons would be right, and I would never walk upright or normally again. Because of my background in anatomy, biomechanics and martial arts, I built, used, and then patented a cane and a crutch with a foot that acted as a third foot. Allowing my body to be upright, stable, aligned and moved the way it was designed to be aligned and moved to engage and strengthen my core muscles and an upright stable walking gait. With continued use, I regained the ability to walk normally again without a cane or crutch despite the prognosis I was given by my surgeons.
The cane that I invented was chosen as a 2020 CTIP Portfolio Member.
The West Coast Consortium for Technology & Innovation in Pediatrics (CTIP) is a pediatric medical device accelerator centered at Children's Hospital Los Angeles funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In 2021 I was included in Think and Zoom Future of Disability-Global List of Disabled Innovators.
I was recently asked by Dr. Alex Van Speybroeck, of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, to modify arm crutches used by children with SB and paralysis with my cane/crutch foot. Dr Van Speybroeck has tried them and after the adapted crutches are tried out in clinic by children with SB and paralysis over the next few months, Dr. Van Speybroeck will decide whether to proceed with a formal study. Developing mobility devices that maximizes mobility, upright posture and the vertical alignment and stability of the weight bearing joints may or may not keep children and adults with SB mobile longer before transitioning to wheelchairs. Keeping a person more upright with their weight bearing joints more vertically aligned helps prevent excess strain on the spine and allows the muscles to be used more efficiently making it easier to get across the playground or the boardroom.
For people with conditions and injuries that affect mobility to have better long-term outcomes, the standard for mobility devices needs to be set higher than maintaining balance. If continued use of a mobility device causes a person to acquire more disability not less, then we need to ask why it’s called a mobility device and not a disability device.