When Mary Maloney suffered a rare spinal stroke in 2020, she was uncertain if she’d ever have use of her legs again. The then-13-year-old was in a trampoline accident and soon after she began feeling strange.
“I just remember this, like, gut-sinking feeling, like when you know something's wrong,” Maloney said. “My movement started to just get [slower], my legs started to get weaker and weaker.”
She was paralyzed from the waist down.
Now 18, Maloney has traveled far from Pittsburgh to seek physical therapy as she continues to recover from the stroke. She and her mother, former KDKA-TV reporter Pam Surano, have driven to facilities in Philadelphia and Louisville, Ky. over the last few years.
“There weren’t many options, locally,” Surano said, which made things tough. “It meant time away from family and friends and school and work. And then we were exhausted,” she said. And all that travel was no longer economically feasible for the two.
But now Maloney — and other Pittsburgh-area patients with neurological conditions — can get cutting-edge rehab care closer to home.
Allegheny Health Network unveiled a new robotic exoskeleton Friday that assists patients with neurological conditions in regaining mobility. The EksoNR robotic exoskeleton is a wearable machine that supports patients in standing and walking during physical therapy. And it’s the first exoskeleton of its kind available in outpatient rehab therapy in the Pittsburgh region.
At a press conference, Maloney demonstrated how the machine allows her to stand up from her wheelchair and take slow, deliberate steps down the hallway of the physical therapy office. The device is evocative of the armor worn by the Marvel superhero Iron Man.
Maloney said the first time she put on the suit, about a month ago, the experience was “mind blowing.”
“The only way I had stood before then … was with therapists,” holding her legs, she said. “To get up and just be walking is just such an incredible feeling.”
Beyond making physical progress in therapy, Maloney said the exoskeleton did wonders for her mental journey since the injury. “You just feel like this glimmer of hope, and it gives you the strength … that compensates for you until you learn how to do it yourself,” she said.
In addition to regaining the experience of walking, the exoskeleton can be a tool to manage pain, loosen tight muscles, maintain bone density and aid with bowel and bladder function.
The EksoNR robotic exoskeleton was created by Ekso Bionics, a California-based exoskeleton manufacturer. It’s designed to help those suffering from a spinal cord injury and is the only robotic exoskeleton FDA-approved for brain injuries and multiple sclerosis.
Treatment with the exoskeleton is a major development for local outpatient rehab in Pittsburgh, according to Dr. Gary Hoover, a rehab physician and medical director of West Penn inpatient rehab. Previously, the device was only available for inpatient therapy.
“It's exciting that patients will not have to travel throughout the country in search of therapeutic tools such as this. They can get excellent therapy and care locally,” he said.
The EksoNR arrived at Allegheny General Hospital’s suburban location in December. According to AHN, a small number of patients are already using it in their physical therapy exercises. The health system plans to make the technology available to dozens more patients in the months ahead.
Previously, the nearest facility to Pittsburgh with the device was in Charleston, West Virginia. The EksoNR is used in more than 200 facilities in the U.S. including centers in Philadelphia as well as Cleveland and Akron, Ohio.
Andy McGuigan, Ekso Bionics’ director of strategic accounts, said the suit supports the full-body movement required for walking by assessing the patient’s abilities and taking cues from the physical therapist “driving” the machine.
“So, can they move that right leg enough to take a step? And if they can't, then the robot's going to assist that whole limb to move,” he said. “Whereas a therapist might have to do that manually [otherwise].”
Maloney’s story, which has grabbed national headlines, inspired her local community to form a support group called “Miracles for Mary” which, alongside the West Penn Foundation and The Diane Foley Fund, covered the cost of the $190,000 EksoNR machine. Those groups stood alongside Surano and Maloney Friday.
“It took the help of many selfless, caring people, many of whom are in this room, to make this unique opportunity happen,” Surano said. “They saw an opportunity to help those in our city who have also had spinal cord injuries that are in the same situation as Mary.”
Maloney, who plans to go to medical school after she finishes high school this year, said it’s important to her that others can get access to the care she’s been “so blessed with.”
“I’m just so excited that this is going to open the door to other people,” Maloney said. “People may not have even known that this was an option.”
