It’s quite common for car wreck victims who suffer serious, life-altering injuries to become depressed and give up hope after the accident. This is especially common for people who become paralyzed (either as paraplegics or quadriplegics). This was not the case for Austin Whitney. He is proof that perseverance, along with creative ingenuity, can turn a seemingly impossible idea into a reality.
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Mr. Whitney became paralyzed from the waist down after a 2007 drunken driving accident, according to CNN.com. Mr. Whitney could have given up and shunned the world, but he opted to continue moving forward and obtain his degree from the University of California at Berkeley.
He worked hard to graduate on time, and with honors. That was reason enough to celebrate. However, nothing compared to how he accepted his diploma – walking across the stage.
“How could a paralyzed car crash victim walk at graduation?” you might ask.
Well, Mr. Whitney was able to move his legs with an “exoskeleton” created by a group of graduate students and Berkeley mechanical engineering professor Homayoon Kazerooni.
Mr. Whitney pressed a button on his walker, rose to his feet, and was able to walk across the stage with 15,000 people cheering him on.
Here is video of Mr. Whitney’s incredible accomplishment:
I am a graduate of UC-Berkeley and am very proud to be associated with a school whose engineering department was able to achieve such a remarkable accomplishment. Hopefully the “exoskeleton” technology can be scaled to the point where paraplegics across the country are able to utilize the technology to regain mobility.
About the Editors: The Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm, which has offices in Virginia (VA) and North Carolina (NC), edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as pro bono services.
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Rick Shapiro has practiced personal injury law for over 30 years in Virginia, North Carolina, and throughout the Southeastern United States. He is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (ABA Accredited) and has litigated injury cases throughout the eastern United States, including wrongful death, trucking, faulty products, railroad, and medical negligence claims. During his three-decade career, Shapiro has won client appeals before the VA Supreme Court, VA Court of Appeals, NC Supreme Court, SC Supreme Court, WV Supreme Court, TN Supreme Court, and three times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, underscoring Shapiro’s trial achievements. In addition, he and his law firm have won settlements/verdicts in excess of $100 million. His success in and out of the courtroom is a big reason why he was named 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” in railroad law in U.S. News & World Report's Best Lawyers publication (Norfolk, VA area), and he has been named a “Best Lawyer” and “Super Lawyer” by those peer-reviewed organizations for multiple years. Rick was also named a “Leader in the Law, Class of 2022” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly (total of 33 statewide honorees consisting of lawyers and judges across Virginia). And in September 2023, Rick was selected as a recipient of the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) 2023 President’s Award. Although many nominations were submitted from across the country, Rick was just one of eight attorneys chosen by the prestigious National Board which certifies civil trial attorneys across the U.S. Rick was also recently named to Virginia Lawyers Weekly 2024 Virginia’s Go To Lawyers Medical Malpractice. The attorneys awarded this honor are nominated by their colleagues and chosen by a panel from the publication.
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