On 18th September 2017 we had the pleasure of visiting the team at Wroclaw Walk Again Project in Poland. It was an interesting and informative couple of days catching up on the progress of the work being carried out.
At the Akson Rehabilitation Centre we visited Darek Fidyka, the first patient to undergo the procedure, and were impressed to see for ourselves confirmation of his continued progress.
Darek was in good spirits and eager to show us around. He began by demonstrating his significant improvement in his core strength below his injury, showing nsif a few of the physiotherapy techniques that have helped build this strength. As well as this improvement in core strength Darek has also shown progress in his ability to ride the adaptive tricycle, he has enhanced his stability while riding the tricycle and fixed exercise bicycle and shows ever increasing fitness levels. When we spoke to Darek he exuded well-being and spoke of his ever-growing improvement to his quality of life and increased independence.
We were also excited to meet the second patient who has been chosen to undergo the procedure. He is currently in the pre-operative rehabilitation stage and told us he is thrilled to be starting treatment. He showed great enthusiasm and his development will be monitored by independent experts for the next few months.
As well as visiting both patients and the team at the rehab centre, we also were delighted to meet with Dr Pawel Tabakow and his team again who talked us through the clinical application and showed us their state-of-the-art facilities.
Huge thank you to the team in Wroclaw for their generous hospitality. We are impressed and excited about this new stage in the research and look forward to updating our supporters on future developments.
For videos of Dareks improvement click here.
For photos of the trip click here.
