Christopher Reeve Foundation gives hope

Nancy Winstead hasn’t stood up in years due to a neurological disease that robbed her of any sensation in her legs.

But Winstead, 53, is riding a stationary bike and spinning the pedals herself.

“It feels almost surreal,” Winstead said. “It’s been 11 years since I moved my legs.”

Whether or not ERGYS2 users will reestablish broken nerve connections to their legs remains unseen, but Laskin holds out hope.
“You just never know,” Laskin said. “We don’t understand enough of the connection between the brain and spinal cord. It’s a complicated, mysterious system. If there’s any connection, you never know what’s going to happen.”
The brain isn’t connected to the legs, he said, but the tie still exists between the spinal cord and the muscles. The bike shows that the muscles still work.
“It just makes you curious,” said Winstead’s assistant Jo Hayes, “You’re telling the body to do things it forgot how to do.”
Two years ago, quadriplegic Mark Cash couldn’t move his legs at all, Laskin said. But in 6 months’ time, Cash could get out of his wheelchair and stand up on his own.
“He’s a quad,” Laskin said. “He’s not supposed to do that, but he did.”
To accomplish this, Cash used the Pneumex Unweighting System that New Direction received three years ago from the Christopher Reeve Foundation for $15,000. The device supports a person who has weakness, pain or poor balance and can decrease their weight by lifting them off a treadmill.
Cash stood, held up by the machine, and had two people move his legs and feet as the treadmill moved. Eventually, Cash regained some feeling in his legs, Laskin said.
When a slight connection bridges the gap, there’s possibility, he said.
“It’s ultimately about walking,” Laskin said, “but we hope for the little things like people putting on their own clothes. More often than not it’s small things.”
Laskin doesn’t expect to stop diseases, but wants to keep people healthy as long as possible, he said.
Unlike that most universities in the United States, UM’s physical therapy gym is open to the public, and it sees 40 to 50 people a day, Laskin said. Gym users include people with osteoporosis, diabetes, strokes, arthritis and other disorders.
“Our ultimate goal is to promote individual exercise,” Laskin said.

Winstead is one of 13 people taking advantage of ERGYS2, a computerized bike worth $18,000 donated to the University of Montana’s physical therapy gym from the Christopher Reeve Foundation.

ERGYS2 can be used by anyone with little or no feeling in their legs, said James Laskin, director of New Directions Wellness Center.

The bike works by attaching electrodes to the quadriceps, hamstrings and gluteus muscles. The machine electrically stimulates the muscles in a calculated sequence to make a person’s leg spin the pedals. It’s the same firing of muscles a person would do to ride a bike, but ERGYS2 does the thinking.

“All we’re doing is bypassing the brain,” Laskin said.

No motor is used to spin the pedals, just the muscles in Nancy’s legs. ERGYS2 has four computers that identify pedal position in space, program resistance, regulate revolutions and control electric stimulus to muscles. A fifth computer balances the others. Nancy has her own thumb-sized computer chip that Laskin plugs into the bike to identify her settings.

“There’s no motor, no magic. Just muscles,” Laskin said.

Laskin isn’t expecting Winstead to just stand up one day, but there are little miracles, he said. The bike can keep Winstead out of the hospital by preventing problems such as diabetes, strokes, heart disease and bedsores, he said.

“They’re sweating and breathing faster,” Laskin said. “Not able to do that without any other form of exercise. Arms can’t get heart rate up that high.”

Since Winstead uses her leg muscles to push the pedals, she can prevent muscle atrophy, experience muscle growth, better circulation and improve her overall health, Laskin said.

“Sometimes, I can increase the RPMs when I really think about pushing and pulling my legs,” Winstead said.

Winstead says she can’t feel her legs, but she can feel the electric shocks and it’s not always that comfortable.

“It’s a little like sitting on an electric fence,” Winstead said.

Charles Archambault, 24, also uses ERGYS2 and has been doing so for six weeks. A car accident paralyzed him a year ago, and he made the decision to go back to school because he can’t work as a surveyor anymore. On the bike, he sees his leg muscles twitching but can’t feel them move. Archambault said he’ll continue to use the bike and doesn’t expect miracles. He just wants his leg muscles to build up, he said.