Hello and welcome to living in the Lehigh Valley, where our focus is your health and wellness.

I'm your host, Brittany Sweeney.

Every parent watches with elation as their child takes those first steps.

But imagine a child born with a crippling condition that prevents them from walking.

Or think about a child with a spinal cord injury who walks with difficulty, if at all.

The physicians and physical therapists at Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network in Allentown now have a new device to help these children and others get up on their feet and walk.

Our own Grover Silcox visited Good Shepherd to learn about this.

A amazing new technology and what it can do.

Grover, always great to see you.

Great to be here, Brittany.

The device is called the Trex.

Plus, it's a robotic marvel that enables pediatric patients with lower extremity weakness or other mobility issues to get up on their feet and walk sometimes for the first time.

So Good Shepherd is using this in their rehabilitation therapy.

Right.

They are.

It's considered gait training, technology and it helps pediatric patients in all kinds of ways by developing neural pathways that might improve their gait or strengthening core and leg muscles and other muscles, and also giving them a new sense of independence and self-confidence.

It sounds like this could really be life changing and even improve the quality of life for these patients.

Absolutely.

The trek zone plus is sort of a mechanical exoskeleton.

Good Shepherd uses the track.

So for its pediatric patients, ranging in age from one to their teens, depending on weight and size.

Right now, it's primarily used as a rehabilitation device to help improve the child's circulation, build muscle strength, gait and even neural pathways affecting movement.

It's a modern day marvel of technology, engineering and medicine all rolled into one.

I had a chance to see the Drexel in action.

Isaiah, you look so good.

You are doing so well.

How many steps is he up to?

The tracks, those are robotic exoskeleton and it has independent motors for the hips and the knees to help facilitate and gait cycle for a patient to work on gait training.

And that also works towards improving trunk control, head control and other kind of gross motor skills.

Dr. Kimberly Kuczynski.

So this is the trek.

So plus medical director of pediatrics for Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network in Allentown, and her staff see the benefits of using the trick.

So plus, with a variety of pediatric patients.

The trek so is for lots of different patients who have different impairments in their overall gross mobility and different types of neurologic impairments.

So it can certainly be for patients who were born that way with cerebral palsy or conditions where they've not walked or achieved walking before.

But it's also for our patients who have had strokes, traumatic brain injuries and have lost some of the skills that they had before and help to regain that mobility and that gait pattern.

Six year old Isaiah Washington, born with a form of cerebral palsy, can speak or walk on his own.

But with the trek.

So plus he can stand upright and walk down a good Shepherd hallway during his rehab sessions.

As he takes each step, his therapist uses an iPad type tablet to monitor and control the boy's progress.

So the sweet boy that you're going to meet today is a six year old with cerebral palsy that affects his arms and his legs.

And he's enjoyed using the track.

So and has definitely benefited in terms of his posture and his head control and his endurance with using the track.

So.

Isaiah's dad, Seleke, credits the staff and the device for improving his son's condition.

After a year working with the trek, Drexel, Isaiah has lifted his head.

Three weeks ago, he just started holding his head up and it just was I was shocked.

It's just absolutely shocking.

I, I didn't think he would probably be gone.

I know he was making a progress, but I did not think he was actually going to hold his head up.

And out of nowhere, the whole entire session, he just held his head and I was just like, What?

It was amazing to see.

And then he came back the next week and he did it again.

Patients such as Isaiah who have had motor limitations their whole lives experience newfound independence using the trek zoom.

Getting them into the trek so getting them upright and having them be able to take steps is a huge deal.

They've got big smiles on their faces.

They've, you know, they're able to go faster as they get better at it.

And that level of independence, even if it doesn't transfer over to a new independence when they're not in the trek.

So certainly transfers over to the enthusiasm and their overall upright stature and their strength every day.

Dr. Kuczynski and her team see amazing results for both their inpatient kids and those children who come for outpatient therapy.

The absolute best scenario we've seen is some of the kids who have had a new onset injury who are absolutely not walking, not moving, that we are able to get up in the truck so safely and moving and ultimately work to transfer from the robotic trainer to a regular gait trainer to walking independently.

Good Shepherd is one of the very few rehab networks in the country with all three sizes of trek.

So for pediatric patients.

And our Good Shepherd in general overall was the first to reach a million steps using the trek.

So it is a proud milestone for us for sure.

For the families and caregivers of these children, every precious step is a milestone in the right direction.

He gives us joy.

He gives us so much joy, that smile that he has by him smiling.

And he's always smiling.

It just is.

It lets us know that we're doing the best that we can.

And and he's happy about it.

To watch little Isaiah go the distance with the help from the Drexel was just remarkable.

He really seemed to be enjoying his therapy, as did his dad, who couldn't speak highly enough about the technology and Good Shepherd staff and what they've done for his son in therapy and the benefits later at home.

Grover, this is really cool.

So can people use this in their home?

Can they purchase it?

It is available for purchase, but it's a very high ticket item, not covered by insurance other than for authorized therapy, such as you would get at Good Shepherd.

Sure.

So then how many other facilities have this technology available?

Well, as I mentioned in the story, Good Shepherd is one of the very few rehabilitation centers with all three sizes of of the treks of four pediatric patients.

Sure.

That's a real plus for people living in the Lehigh Valley.

It sure is.

All right, Grover, some great information, as always.

Thanks for sharing that with us.

You're welcome.

All right.

That'll do it for this edition of Living in the Lehigh Valley.

I'm Brittany Sweeney, hoping you stay happy and healthy.