Could Michel Roccati have dreamed of walking again one day after this motorcycle accident in 2017?
The chances are minimal and the operation very delicate.
But above all, it's a miracle: the 30-something is the first person to have been able to take steps with a completely damaged spinal cord: he became totally paraplegic after breaking several vertebrae.
" Its very important.
The simple fact of being able to stand up to take a shower.
I feel free, I can go where I want,” he says.
The operation is still in the trial phase but it is revolutionizing neuroscience and technology.
To treat Michel's paralysis, both his legs and his abdomen must be stimulated using electrode implants in his spine.
Revolutionary also because the effect is immediate: the patients manage to stand up and walk again very quickly after the operation.
These first steps are taken in the laboratory, on a treadmill, but it only takes training and rehabilitation to be able to use it outdoors.
Although he couldn't even stand up, today Michel can walk several meters a day, relying on a simple walker: "I've had intense training over the past few months and I've set myself a set of goals.
For example,
I can now walk up and down stairs, and hope to be able to walk a kilometer by spring.
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Until then, the technology was mainly used on chronic pain.
Two researchers from the University of the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne in Switzerland, Jocelyne Bloch and Grégoire Courtine, have developed longer, wider electrodes that can cover a large area of the spinal cord to control the muscles in question.
It's a technological feat still in the testing phase, but soon thousands of paraplegics will be able to walk, swim, or simply feel their legs again.