An out-of-warranty battery almost left this paralyzed man’s exoskeleton useless

Michael Straight, a former jockey paralyzed from the waist down, was left unable to walk for two months after the company behind his $100,000 exoskeleton refused to fix a battery issue, as reported earlier by the Paulick Report and 404 Media. "I called [the company] thinking it was no big deal, yet I was told they stopped working on any machine that was 5 years or older," Straight wrote on Facebook, referring to a wiring problem in the watch he wears to operate the machine.

"I find it very hard to believe after paying nearly $100,000 for the machine and training that a $20 battery for the watch is the reason I can't walk anymore?" he wrote. Straight has been using the ReWalk exoskeleton since 2014, following a horseback riding accident years prior.

His situation isn't the only one like this. In 2020, the medical firm behind a retinal implant that helps blind people see went bankrupt and abandoned the technology, leaving its users without support if something goes wrong. This Nature report also explains what happened to patients after the collapse of companies behind implantable devices used to treat conditions like cluster headaches and chronic pain or when their prototype devices languish if the companies can't find a fit in the market.

Lifeward, the company that makes the ReWalk Personal Exoskeleton, fixed the issue days after Straight's story appeared in the Paulick Report and on a local Florida news station. "What took me two months and got me no results, only took you guys four days," Straight said in a video on Facebook over the weekend.

In a statement to The Verge, Lifeward spokesperson Kathleen O'Donnell said the company is "pleased to report that we got in touch with Mr. Straight last week, and we were able to resolve the issue with his device over the weekend." She also said Lifeward is "committed to working to expand access to exoskeletons through reimbursement coverage," but that may not help people who either can't or simply don't want to replace the devices they have.

In parallel, as Mr. Straight's device is now more than 10 years old, we are also encouraging him to replace it, now that Medicare coverage and other options are becoming available for reimbursement of personal exoskeletons for medically eligible individuals. Lifeward has committed to working to expand access to exoskeletons through reimbursement coverage, and after 5 years of effort, a new category was created by Medicare, which began paying for personal exoskeletons in April of this year. The company has built an internal team to work with the user and their clinician every step of the way during the process of screening for eligibility and filing claims to Medicare. This is a major milestone for the paralyzed community and for the industry to supply and provide replacements of these products.