'RiceWrist' robot helps spinal-cord injury victim (w/ video)
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 - 08:02
in Health & Medicine
Randy Childers' path to a laboratory at Rice University began on a motocross track in West Beaumont, Texas. The professional rider was injured in an accident while leading the last race of the day at Cowboy Badlands. Childers, then 24, suffered broken ribs, a compound fracture of the wrist and a crushed vertebra in his neck. A helicopter transported him to Houston, where surgeons inserted an artificial vertebra and fused two other vertebrae together during a 12-hour operation.