Last year, Kristen Sorensen was diagnosed with a rare disorder called Guillain Barre syndrome, which affects the nervous system, and the then 55-year-old woman was paralyzed from the neck down.
"It came out of nowhere," says Sorensen. "I'd been fine and exercising every day, but it just started with tingling in my fingertips then progressed."
Sorensen never expected to walk again.
But earlier that year, the Brooks Cybernic Treatment Center in Jacksonville, Florida, became the first US center to use a unique rehabilitative technology developed in Japan -- the Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL).
HAL -- essentially a wearable cyborg -- helps those with spinal cord injuries and muscular dystrophy regain their movements and strengthen their nerves and muscles. Known as exoskeletons, they're a type of lightweight suit, with joints powered by small electric motors, that serve as mechanical muscle.
Here's what's truly mind-blowing: Patients use their brain waves to control them.
See more details over at CNN.
(Image Credit: CNN)