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Call her the bionic woman: Amy Paradis walks again thanks to robotic exoskeleton

She was told she would never walk again. In 2009, when she was just 16 years old, Amy Paradis crushed her upper spine in a car accident, leaving her without use of her legs. She wasn't given much much hope that she would regain mobility. But this week, thanks to her own effort and fundraising in her community of Windsor,...
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She was told she would never walk again. In 2009, when she was just 16 years old, Amy Paradis crushed her upper spine in a car accident, leaving her without use of her legs. She wasn't given much much hope that she would regain mobility. But this week, thanks to her own effort and fundraising in her community of Windsor, Nova Scotia, she took her first steps in a new high-tech exoskeleton.

Around Windsor, they're affectionately calling her the bionic woman. The $100,000 Ekso Bionics suit -- the cost of which is being raised by the community through pot luck dinners and other fundraising events -- attaches to her back and legs, and using a combination of sensors, motors and computer power, pushes the hips and knees forward to walk.

Hear Carol's interview with Amy Paradis, and her mother Marlene Belliveau, by selecting the "Listen" button above.

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