Marc Gauthier has Parkinson’s disease.
The disease affects his nervous system, weakens his muscles and causes his arms and legs to shake.
The 63-year-old Gauthier had not been able to leave his home for some time. But that was until he became the first person to receive a new Swiss-designed medical device that greatly improved his ability to walk.
Gauthier received a medical device called a neuroprosthetic at Switzerland’s Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV). Part of the device, called an electrode field, is placed against part of the nervous system which runs in the back called the spinal cord. Another part of the device, found under his skin below the stomach, uses electricity to stimulate the spinal cord to start up his leg muscles. It is called an electrical impulse generator.
