ZeroG complements the technological resources that our scientists are using to help people stand and walk, sometimes for the first time, after a paralyzing injury or stroke. We anticipate that ZeroG will help us explore new ways to help individuals function more independently at home, in the community and in the workplace.
ZeroG is a major part of Good Shepherd’s locomotor training program. We are attacking gait recovery on all fronts and ZeroG has contributed significantly to our ability to maximize functional and gait recovery for our patients. ZeroG allows us to place our patients in the proper bio-mechanical position, enables them to repeat proper functional movements over and over while at the same time challenging key muscles that contribute greatly to their neuroplastic recovery.
ZeroG prevents patients from falling; it provides security in this critical time of healing. Patient progress is noticeable, as they feel more secure in each movement practiced.
We get to be way more aggressive with our treatments because patients aren’t going to fall. I think back to the way I was treating my patients 5 years ago and I think if I only had this equipment what would so and so’s outcome have been? I’m excited to see how our outcomes change and how people’s lives are changed because we’re able to take them to the next level with their rehab.
ZeroG is the most widely used device within our clinics because it can be used with clients that range from very low level to high level, depending on the goal of the treatment session.
ZeroG allows us to work on sitting, balance, and sit-to-stand transfers with our low level patients with brain injury who otherwise would be dependent for these activities. With our higher level patients with brain injury, ZeroG allows our patients to improve their dynamic standing balance and confidence in a safe environment.
With ZeroG, patients have the freedom to move and take away that component of fear that sometimes holds people back.
ZeroG enables us to get patients up on their feet way before we would have been able to without the technology.
When I take a patient and I can step back, they build that confidence and start to realize “I am doing this on my own.” Their confidence and their willingness to try other things increases and we can challenge them even further.
As a patient in rehab, I often felt I had progressed enough to walk or run without assistance from my therapist. But I knew they would never let me try for my own safety. ZeroG helped me confirm what I could or could not do on my own and gave me that extra confidence to try when I wasn’t assisted!
I went from a wheelchair…to crutches…to a cane…to just my prosthetic leg. The ZeroG helped me so much, and I’ve been able to inspire others.
The Shepherd Center in Atlanta did miracles with our son Daan. After a traffic accident, Daan had severe traumatic brain injury and ended his Dutch post-acute program in a wheelchair with his right side paralyzed. After the Shepherd Center program, Daan now walks again due to his perseverance and the combination of highly committed health professionals combined with state of the art technology. The ZeroG track helped Daan in many ways. In confidence, in zero gravity support, in re-finding his balance and especially to get the courage to stand up and to walk again.
After a few falls I realized that you couldn’t really hurt yourself even if you intentionally tried to face plant on the ground. It won’t let you. It lowers you slowly and graciously. Once I established that factor, I was able to push myself to much greater limits as opposed to being on a walker or any other piece of equipment. Without the fear of falling you are able to go beyond the typical limits.
ZeroG allowed me to have 30 to 40 pounds lifted up off of me, which allowed me to gradually learn how to walk better and how to stabilize myself and how to just gradually get back to some sense of normalcy.
I was bedridden for close to 2 ½ months. So it was a great surprise that when I got on the ZeroG machine after all that time, that I could actually walk because it takes the weight off you and leaves just enough weight to let you know you can move your feet. That was a wonderful feeling. There is no way it will drop you so the confidence that you’re not going to get hurt is a big relief to anybody that uses ZeroG.
I was afraid to stand up at first, but by the second time I used it I was running. I hadn’t walked in two weeks, and there I was jogging. It helped me recover really fast. Once I got in the system, it gave me confidence and I was going all over.