Mother invents device to help her daughter regain walking ability

Due to a stroke, Dindia Gutmann is paralyzed on one side since she was born. Her condition makes independent movement nearly impossible. Since there was no therapy available which was efficient in the longterm, her mother Anna decided to develop a device for posture and movement correction. During development, she had always been assisted by her daughter.

She was lacking technological background, nevertheless, she started to tinker. These patients feel their body’s core postponed. After almost ten years of improvement, the current device consists of sensors, hidden in a black vest, which are connected to electrodes above and below the clavicle.

“The device evokes a stimulus to remind me to straighten up”, describes Dindia.

For the first prototype in 2005, mercury switches were connected to a flashlight and sensors. Wearing this, the lamp always shone on her back, when she did not stand tall.

“I had to find a solution to measure, if she stood in horizontal position”, explains the mother the usage of mercury switches.

Collaborating with the Technological University of Berlin, they improved the device in the following years.

Using the device led to an extreme progress in walking, which caused a strong decline of her spasticity.

After having won fundings by TU Berin and the EXIST scholarship, they developed the described prototype by 2013. Anna also launched a crowdfunding campaign.

Dindia, assisted by the TU Berlin, found the start-up Remod to capitalize on the device.

More information: http://www.hemiparese-therapie.de/remod-2/

Adapted from: http://bit.ly/2oeuwdo
https://youtu.be/9Bv8nkGwAsw