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Paralyzed Man Unable to Walk After Maker of His Powered Exoskeleton Tells Him It's Now Obsolete (futurism.com)

submitted 1 month ago by Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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A former jockey who was left paralyzed from the waist down after a horse riding accident was able to walk again thanks to a cutting-edge piece of robotic tech: a $100,000 ReWalk Personal exoskeleton.

When one of its small parts malfunctioned, however, the entire device stopped working. Desperate to gain his mobility back, he reached out to the manufacturer, Lifeward, for repairs. But it turned him away, claiming his exoskeleton was too old, *404 media *reports.

"After 371,091 steps my exoskeleton is being retired after 10 years of unbelievable physical therapy," Michael Straight posted on Facebook earlier this month. "The reasons why it has stopped is a pathetic excuse for a bad company to try and make more money."

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[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 11 points 1 month ago

Yours is one of the most well deserved downvotes. Dude got paralyzed, literally cannot walk or stand anymore, received the exoskeleton (which was paid for in full by a fundraiser back in 2015) and the company simply decided "nah, we don't touch anything older than 5 years", knowing full well that this is NOT a disposable device and that Michael would need it for the rest of his life.

Keep in mind Lifewalk, the company behind the exoskeleton, didn't even try to come up with a public bullshit reason to deny maintenance to a device that they knew full well would be used for the rest of the person's life, or upsell a newer model.