Swansea man paralysed by wave says AI could help him walk again

When Dan Richards went for a New Yr’s Eve swim in 2023, he by no means might have imagined how drastically his life would change.

In a freak accident, he injured his neck when a wave caused him to flip and hit the sand in Langland Bay, Swansea.

“I knew immediately that I used to be paralysed,” the 37-year-old stated.

“I could not transfer something.”

Docs instructed him he could be bed-bound however, two years later, he makes use of a wheelchair and might transfer his arms and fingers.

He has even walked with the assistance of Synthetic Intelligence (AI) expertise in Wales and Germany.

Dan and his accomplice Anna, 40, have been celebrating the brand new 12 months with a chilly water dip when the accident occurred.

“I keep in mind all of it, sadly. Being pulled out. After which the whole lot altering,” Dan stated.

“I obtained hit by a wave, it flipped me over and folded me backwards, and snapped my neck. I knew it was unhealthy.”

Anna recalled listening to Dan shouting for assist as she obtained able to get into the water.

“I simply keep in mind wanting over and simply seeing Dan’s head developing after which going again underneath,” she stated.

“We dragged him out. However he was simply useless weight and the ocean was coming in actually quick.

“We waited for emergency companies, after which [I remember] begging them to let me go within the helicopter. It was horrendous.”

After being taken to hospital in Bristol, the couple from Swansea got life-changing information.

Dan stated he was instructed he was paralysed type the neck down, wouldn’t be capable of transfer and it was “extremely probably” he could be bed-bound for the remainder of his life.

Anna – who had solely began courting Dan a number of months earlier than the accident – needed to make dreaded cellphone calls to relations.

“It was New Yr’s Eve, I used to be put in a room alone however you could possibly hear folks laughing and joking, and I needed to inform Dan’s dad and mom.

“How do you cellphone somebody’s mum and say that their son is paralysed?”

Anna stated day-after-day for the reason that accident has introduced a brand new problem.

“It is our actuality. Till you are on this scenario… you do not realise simply how a lot you’ve got misplaced.”

However within the months that adopted the accident, when Dan was in hospital, even the slightest motion in his toes gave the couple hope issues would change.

“Fortunately I am fairly cussed,” Dan stated.

“I simply needed to see the physios as quickly as doable. I needed to work. I did not settle for what they have been saying.

“I am pleased with the progress I’ve made. It is a very long time since laying in mattress in Bristol, that is for positive.”

He continued: “The sensation in my toes then translated into full feeling via my legs and ft, some motion in my proper leg [and] core power – which I used to be instructed was gone – began to come back again. Motion in my arms, my fingers, with the ability to maintain issues.

“I am nonetheless hopeful, I am nonetheless constructive. With fashionable applied sciences, I am not giving up.”

Dan had personal physiotherapy at a specialist clinic in south Wales which used a world-first mixed therapy to assist him stroll with a machine.

Jakko Brouwers, a neurophysiotherapist from Morello clinic in Newport, stated Dan was “an immensely motivated man” when he visited them after being discharged from hospital.

“The expertise is two-fold,” he defined.

“The primary half we tried with Dan is a robotic. The robotic will mimic regular human gait as a lot as doable.

“The opposite a part of the system that we developed is a stimulation swimsuit that has obtained sensors. The trousers are additionally fitted with electrodes and we are able to stimulate muscle exercise on the proper time.

“Via a little bit little bit of algorithm – and dare I say AI – it’s going to begin growing a strolling sample.

“It is tremendous thrilling. It is not typically that you simply see that in Wales.”

Dan stated the expertise was “surreal” however “the most effective feeling”.

“It simply made me wish to push more durable. That is on our doorstep right here in Wales, so it spurred us on to do a little analysis, and do different issues.”

However personal physiotherapy and revolutionary therapy doesn’t come with out price.

From raffles to ultramarathons and charity nights, household and associates have fundraised which means Dan and Anna might set off for a trial overseas in October.

Dan defined he was attempting two completely different therapies concurrently in Germany – a stem cell therapy straight into his spinal wire, alongside utilizing a Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL) swimsuit, which is a machine that works on mind waves.

“It is one of many first instances it is ever been completed,” he stated.

“Sensors translate alerts into motion, which then get my legs working, get me strolling.

“The extra you do it, the stronger the alerts get, the sooner it will get and finally you are in a position to stroll with out the swimsuit.”

With six weeks of therapy left in Germany within the new 12 months, Dan must apply for an EU Medical Visa, which is one other problem he stated he’s decided to beat.

He doesn’t know what the long run holds, however is decided not to surrender.

“Expertise is advancing so quick, issues aren’t the place they have been 10 years in the past.

“New analysis is unimaginable. There is no such thing as a restrict. I do not need there to be a restrict.

“The extra progress I could make now, the higher our future will probably be.”