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| Home > Healthy People > April 2004 |
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Spring 2004
Special bike allows paralyzed people to exercise through electronic
stimulation
Jeanetta Bowman is about as active as a person can get. Slim, tanned and
attractive, the 30-year-old single mom works full time as a medical
secretary for St. John’s Therapy Services in Lebanon and stays busy after
work caring for her 7-year-old son, Steven.
 Once a jogger, Jeanetta now stays fit by riding a stationary bike at her
workplace several times a week.
But this is no ordinary stationary bike, and Jeanetta Bowman is no
ordinary athlete.
The bike she exercises on is an approximately $15,000 functional
electronic stimulation bike called the Ergys 2. Functional electronic
stimulation technology allows paralyzed people to exercise by attaching
computer-programmed electrodes from the equipment to their bodies to
stimulate their muscles to contract in a coordinated manner, thus the
pedaling motion on the bike.
 Before Jeanetta used the bike for the first time in January 2003 at the
Rehabilitation Institute of St. Louis, which is affiliated with Washington
University Medical Center and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, she hadn’t seen her
legs move on their own since a 1995 car crash on Interstate-44 left her
paralyzed from the torso down.
“My little boy was with me when I rode the bike in St. Louis just over a
year ago. He was so excited to see my legs moving for the first time. It
was pretty unbelievable and such a wonderful feeling, after nine years, to
be able to exercise again. Then I was able to stand up using another piece
of equipment, the standing glider, and he said, ‘Oh my gosh, Mom, you’re
tall!’ It was very moving for both of us.”
Jeanetta’s spinal cord injury, a complete one, occurred at the seventh
thoracic vertebrae, which is about midway down the spine. She learned of
the St. Louis program after writing a letter to actor Christopher Reeve,
who had participated in the program and regained some functioning.
“In the summer of 2002, I had read an article about Christopher Reeve, a
sort of day-in-the-life article, and it told about how he has to watch his
carbohydrate and fluid intake very carefully, which is very different from
my lifestyle. I’m fortunate that I don’t have to monitor those things.
Something told me to write him a letter. About a week and half after I
mailed the letter, I got a call from his head nurse and she told me about
the program in St. Louis and basically arranged for me to be able to
participate in it,” Jeanetta says.
After traveling to St. Louis once a week for three months to participate
in the rehab program, Jeanetta reported her experiences there to her
director, Terri Foster, who was beginning the process of starting a
neurological rehabilitation program at St. John’s Therapy Services in
Lebanon.
An anonymous donation from a member of the community allowed Foster to
purchase the Ergys bike last August. St. John’s Therapy Services in
Lebanon is the only provider of the Ergys equipment within a 250-mile
radius. The clinic also offers the standing glider that Jeanetta used in
St. Louis that allows paralyzed people to stand. A third piece of
neurological rehab equipment, a supported treadmill-like device, will
arrive soon.
“When I rode the bike for the first time, I could ride for only a few
seconds without hand assistance. I’m now up to about an hour a day, with
no assistance, and I’m increasing my resistance level as well. I try to
ride at least three times a week. I also have a hand-held electrode unit
that allows me to stimulate my muscles at home when I’m not able to ride
the bike to keep my muscle mass built up,” Jeanetta says.
The benefits of using the Ergys bike are numerous, says Physical Therapist
Sara Johnson, who works with Jeanetta at St. John’s Therapy Services in
Lebanon.
“The electrical stimulation we apply to the muscles with the bike – while
research is sketchy about whether it actually regenerates nerve growth –
it does build up muscle bulk. Patients who use the bike regularly gain
muscle mass in the stimulated areas which can really help to decrease skin
break down and pressure sores. It also increases circulation and promotes
healthy tissue. Of course, there are also cardiovascular benefits, which
are good for everyone,” Johnson says. “We use the bike for not only our
spinal cord injury patients, but also as a recumbent bike for our other
physical therapy patients as well,” she added.
St. John’s Therapy Services offers a prescription-only maintenance program
for independent spinal cord injury patients who wish to use the Ergys bike
for $25 per month.
“The $25 per month maintenance program is set up for patients who feel
they don’t need any more physical therapy, such as transfer training. They
can ride the bike as often as they want and can sign up for two-hour
blocks of time. We just need a physician’s referral, just like for any
other physical therapy service,” Johnson says.
NextSteps Fundraiser
Pat Rummerfield, the world’s first fully recovered spinal cord injury
quadriplegic, will speak.
• Lebanon’s Kenneth E. Cowan
Civic Center, 500 E. Elm
6:30 p.m., April 13
This is a fundraiser for his foundation, NextSteps, whose mission is to
help in the fight for the prevention of, treatment and cure of paralysis.
The event is free and open to the public. |
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