Paralyzed jockey lost his ability to walk after manufacturer refused to fix the battery for his $100,000 exoskeleton

Michael Straight, a former jockey paralyzed from the waist down, was left unable to walk for two months after the company behind his $100,000 exoskeleton refused to fix a battery issue, as reported last year by the Paulick Report and 404 Media. “I called [the company] thinking it was no big deal, yet I was told they stopped working on any machine that was 5 years or older,” Straight wrote on Facebook, referring to a wiring problem in the watch he wears to operate the machine.

“I find it very hard to believe after paying nearly $100,000 for the machine and training that a $20 battery for the watch is the reason I can’t walk anymore?” he wrote. Straight has been using the ReWalk exoskeleton since 2014, following a horseback riding accident years prior.”

Lifeward, the company that makes the ReWalk Personal Exoskeleton, fixed the issue days after Straight’s story appeared in the Paulick Report and on a local Florida news station. “What took me two months and got me no results, only took you guys four days,” Straight said in a video on Facebook over the weekend.

See more on The Verge and 404 Media.

 


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