August, 2001… Magee Rehabilitation Hospital in Philadelphia, PA, and the Cooper Health System in Camden, NJ have partnered to provide a new technology to people with quadriplegia that can significantly improve their quality of life. Known as The Freehand System, this technology enables people with spinal cord injuries to regain some use of a paralyzed hand.

William Kilbride, a 43-year-old man from Riverside, NJ, recently became the first adult recipient of The Freehand System in the Delaware Valley. Innocent horseplay left Mr. Kilbride with a permanent spinal cord injury more than a year ago. He is paralyzed below his chest, and was also unable to move his arms and hands. Experts from Cooper and Magee determined that Mr. Kilbride was a candidate for The Freehand System during a special evaluation last November.

The Freehand System is a surgically implanted neuroprosthetic device, with an external controller, that restores the ability to grasp, hold and release objects of various sizes and weights. Cooper orthopedic surgeons James J. Yue, MD and John E. Blank, MD, performed the six hour implantation procedure in April. The procedure involved connecting electrodes to specific muscles that when electrically stimulated together, create hand grasps. The electrodes were attached to leads and threaded under the skin where they were connected to a pacemaker-sized internal stimulator in the chest.

Following the successful surgery and six weeks of immobilization, Mr. Kilbride became an inpatient at Magee. Here, occupational therapists Sheryl Davis and MaryGrace Mangine worked with Mr. Kilbride daily. In the beginning, his rehabilitation focused on loosening muscles and joints that had not been used in more than a year. Over the next month, Mr. Kilbride participated in a combination of exercises for various strengthening, including the use of The Freehand System, to build toward the use of his hand for more functional tasks.

Although progress was slow, he was able to achieve significant milestones, such as feeding himself, eliminating the use of adjunctive hand splints, and brushing his teeth.

Dr. William E. Staas, Jr., Magee’s president and medical director, was Mr. Kilbride’s attending physician at Magee. Dr. Staas says, “Mr. Kilbride and his family are highly motivated to assist him in achieving the maximum functional use of his right arm and hand. He has worked hard and continues to do so in his outpatient phase of care. His continued progress is encouraging to all of us.”

Mr. Kilbride continues therapy as an outpatient at Magee, as well as home therapy. He has now identified goals of his own that he would like to achieve with continued use of The Freehand System, such as playing cards and ball with his children.