SINGAPORE – Last year, while clearing debris from the Moringa tree in his backyard, Mr Reuben T. Sreetharan fell, landing hard on his feet before collapsing into a seated position. There was no pain, but he couldn’t move his legs. 

At the hospital, the 53-year-old businessman learnt that the fall had injured his spinal cord in the middle back, which partially severed his brain’s connection to the body from below that area. His hospital stay lasted five months, during which he had to learn how to live without the use of his lower body.

In Singapore, the National Neuroscience Institute (NNI) and Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) have previously said they see approximately 100 new cases of spinal cord injury (SCI) annually, while the hospitals in the National University Health System cluster manage an average of 35 new inpatient cases every year.

Falls are a leading cause of this life-altering condition, especially in older adults, who may be at an increased risk of premature death due to injury-related complications.

There is no known cure for SCI, which results in either complete or incomplete loss of sensory and/or motor functions below the injury level, but researchers around the world and here are exploring new treatments, including therapies and advanced assistive technologies. 

A promising research area is electrode stimulation, which involves delivering electrical pulses either through electrodes placed on the skin known as transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation, or surgically implanted near the spinal cord.

At Alexandra Hospital (AH), Clinical Assistant Professor Gobinathan Chandran, a consultant in rehabilitation medicine, started a new trial that uses non-invasive electrode stimulation with robotic gait training to enhance mobility in SCI patients.

In November 2024, Mr Sreetharan became the first of six participants in the trial, and underwent 32 sessions of therapy using a wearable robotic device that supports and assists movement known as the exoskeleton, including 16 done with electrode stimulation.

It was not till the 25th session that he started to notice subtle changes. He said he can now feel his feet pressing on the footrests of his wheelchair, his hamstrings, and even his glutes, when previously he felt like he was living on a cloud.