Evander Conroy reportedly will be the first to use a treadmill specially designed for pediatric locomotor training. (Photo courtesy of University of Louisville Health Sciences Center.)
A 4-year-old boy will continue locomotor training at Frazier Rehab Institute, Louisville, Ky, using a treadmill specially designed for children and developed by Andrea Behrman, PhD, and colleagues at the Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center.
According to a media release from University of Louisville Health Sciences Center (UL), 4-year-old Evander Conroy will travel from his home in Sydney, Australia, to Louisville to continue a 5-week therapy program designed to help him gain the ability to walk. Conroy will undertake locomotor training with University of Louisville’s Behrman, who is also director of the Kosair Charities Center for Pediatric NeuroRecovery, a clinical services division of UofL’s Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center (KSCIRC).
Conroy reportedly is the first pediatric patient to utilize the new treadmill, engineered to accommodate locomotor training for children. Before the treadmill was introduced Behrman and her team had to adapt adult devices to fit Conroy and other children for locomotor training.
The cause of Conroy’s condition was a malignant tumor present in his chest cavity at birth, which damaged his spine. His prognosis was confinement to a wheelchair. Conroy’s mother reportedly met Behrman at a spinal cord injury conference in Australia and learned about LT, an activity-based rehabilitation approach Behrman provides at Frazier Rehab Institute, a part of KentuckyOne Health, in Louisville.
This is not Conroy’s first trip to Frazier Rehab Institute. He has previously come for therapy in 2013 and 2014, and is reported to have experienced significant progress. As a result of the therapy, Conroy is said to have been able to move his legs and take independent steps.
Financial support for Conroy’s travel and treatment is being provided by the Todd Crawford Foundation. The foundation grew out of efforts to assist Crawford following his own spinal cord injury in 2002 that left him in a wheelchair. Crawford is president of Crawford Designs, an online media and design company.
“We are able to help financially assist these kids coming to Louisville because we have a large group of wonderful people who come to our events and support our mission. For this, we are continually grateful,” Crawford states in the media release from UL.
[Source: University of Louisville Health Sciences Center]
