Polinsky Rehabilitation Center
The more work you put in, the more you get out. It’s the theory behind what takes place every day in the Polinsky Rehabilitation Center and at Miller-Dwan Rehabilitation, where people routinely put herculean efforts into recovering from a stroke, brain illness or spinal cord injury—often over the course of months or years. It’s also the basis for a technology that’s poised to uplift the center’s excellent care in bold new ways.
That technology is the ZeroG® Gait and Balance System, the first of its kind north of the Twin Cities. A robotic body-weight support system, ZeroG’s® centerpiece is a harness hanging from an overhead track, that will allow Polinsky patients to practice a wide range of life-changing physical rehabilitation therapies without the risk of falling. That support allows for more intense therapy, earlier in rehabilitation, for dramatically better results.
“Research shows that higher intensity workouts improve outcomes,” says Chris Thorson, Polinsky manager. “Patients gain the confidence that they won’t fall, and we can more easily help patients.”
Without committed donors who understand the importance of their work, ZeroG® and other state-of-the-art equipment would not be available. An anonymous donor, in particular, was so deeply moved by the care that his wife received here that he wanted to advance rehabilitation to the next level. She worked so hard as a patient— to walk, to climb stairs, to not fall—that he wanted to respond with the same determined focus on progress.
“You want to provide the best opportunity to improve life,” he says. “There’s always a lot of improvement that can be made—always. And it’s not always the improvement itself, but the fact that you’re working to improve.”
