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Learning to walk again
By Kalea Hall
AUSTINTOWN
Stacey Kozel stood up, extended her right hip, planted her foot and swung her left leg.
“I want you to visualize kicking a ball,” said Liz Hillen, an orthotist, prosthetist and clinical specialist for Ottobock, a German-based orthotics and prosthetics company. “That’s familiar to you, right?”
The 41-year-old former soccer player from Medina smiled in response as she bent her knee for the first time since March 2014.
Ottobock’s C-Brace will allow Kozel, who has paralysis in her legs caused by the autoimmune disorder lupus, to actually walk instead of drag her legs – conserving her energy and improving her life. After months of waiting for insurance approval, Kozel finally received her C-Braces and put them through the initial tests at Western Reserve Orthotics & Prosthetics Centre on Mahoning Avenue.
“I feel less energy being used already,” Kozel said. “It’s getting my brain to remember how it works.”
Within a half-hour, it appeared that Kozel’s brain remembered exactly what it lost in 2014. Since then, the active Kozel has worked hard to try to find a way to get her lifestyle back.
“It was very frustrating,” she said. “I couldn’t even roll over in bed. I wasn’t going to give up.”
She did her research and found out about the C-Brace. The technology has been around since the 1990s and been used in prosthetic legs for amputees. The technology was adapted for braces in 2012.
The C-Brace is a microprocessor-controlled device with sensors that know where the patient is in the walking cycle. Other braces lock and prevent flexing when a patient is standing, but this brace adjusts for every period of gait and provides stumble recovery.
“It makes it feel like she’s walking like normal,” said Alicia Drain, clinical research specialist for Ottobock, the company that offers the C-Brace. “It recognizes the stumble feature. It will hold her and grasp her.”
Western Reserve Orthotics & Prosthetics helped Kozel get back on her feet. With physical therapy, she was able to become strong enough to be eligible for the C-Braces.
Then came the insurance part.
Joey Pollak, orthotist and prosthetist at Western Reserve, helped make the braces a possibility for Kozel. He made the initial evaluation to see if she would be a candidate. After she passed the physical and attitude tests, Pollak worked to see that the insurance covered the braces, which took time.
“They kept fighting for me,” Kozel said.
Her attitude also helped her. Kozel is one to break a smile even when she is in pain.
In her blue sweatsuit and black shoes, Kozel took step after step. She was cautious, remembering those times she attempted to bend her knee before the C-Brace when it didn’t end well.
“I will have this [down] by tomorrow,” Kozel said.
“I know you will,” Hillen said.
Kozel said she feels like the possibilities for the future are endless. She wants to get back to hiking, which hasn’t been possible for many months, and she wants to get a job with the radiology degree she received last year.
Most importantly, she wants others in braces or a wheelchair to see that there are other options out there to help them get back on their feet.
“They don’t realize these exist,” she said. “It will be nice when [the braces] get more common.”