Ron Cote was a male with an incomplete T-10 spinal cord injury secondary to spinal fusion surgery seven years prior to the study. He stood in a stander daily, transferred independently, and could walk very short distances with a walker with close guarding.He was able to walk independently in a pool with flotation devices.

He presented with weakness in both lower extremities impacting all muscle groups. The patient had 2-/5 strength on the left and 3/5 strength on the right for hip flexors, knee extensors, ankle plantar flexors, and ankle dorsiflexors. Sensation was poor. On the left the subject could feel the sensation of being touched but could not discriminate sharp, dull, or location. He was also unable to discriminate the position of the left hip, knee, or ankle. His sensation was fair on the right for light touch, sharp, dull, and position of the hip, knee, and ankle.

Prior to working with Kickstart, his therapy was focused on body-weight supported treadmill training with a GlideTrackTM once a week and aquatic therapy 4 days a week at another rehabilitation site. He used Kickstart in a bilateral configuration for supervised over ground walking once a week for eight months. With Kickstart, the subject was able to make substantial gains in both walking speed and endurance.  

Despite a short setback from a revision surgery to replace the stabilization hardware in his spine, his walking speed improved at its maximum to 0.4 m/s, a substantial increase from the 0.2 m/s he was able to achieve without the device and above the threshold considered for limited community ambulation [15,16]. Endurance improved even more dramatically, with six minute walk distances improving from 25 meters to 125 meters, a five-fold increase. During some therapy sessions, the subjects were able walk outside for 30-45 minutes and cover the distance of 500 m. He also perceived an improvement in proprioception in terms of awareness of his knee position in  space.

Lastly, his right leg function improved enough to permit unilateral use of Kickstart on the left side only.