On 12 December, a new prodrobot – an automated device designed for rehabilitation of lower limbs of patients with gait dysfunction – was set up at the Children’s University Hospital in Kraków. The organisers of the fifth Tesco Charity Run have managed to collect over 200,000 PLN from about 3,000 runners. It was their help that allowed the hospital to acquire this high-tech piece of equipment.
Prodrobot is a state-of-the-art rehabilitation equipment which stimulates a walking pattern for legs, offering types of exercises unavailable on any other device. The robot’s designers worked very closely with experts from the field of rehabilitation, medicine and control engineering, implementing many solutions aimed to increase the comfort of use, which is a major factor in the treatment of children. The unique properties of the prodrobot will allow patients to recover much more quickly.
One of the first children to be rehabilitated by the prodrobot is 10-year old Kamil, who suffers from cerebral palsy. He is currently using wheelchair to move, but he is also able to take a few steps with a walker. Both Kamil’s parents and therapists believe that if he gets used to walking, he will gradually become move about more easily.
‘Kamil has already practiced with the robot during the testing phase and he’s just fascinated by it. When we put him in, he was able to try walking the stairs or squatting for the first time. We hope that with the help of an automatic trainer he might become more independent’, said Katarzyna Rajczyk, Kamil’s mother.
Representatives of the Tesco Foundation and Tesco Polska as well as the robot’s designers and hospital’s management were all present at the handover ceremony. ‘Our hospital’s motto is: “A child’s health is the highest good”’, said Dr hab. Maciej Kowalczyk, director of the Children’s University Hospital. ‘To achieve our goals, we employ the most advanced technologies, such as this prodrobot. It will serve our patients and give them a chance at normal life. We’re happy to have allies like the Tesco Foundation. Together we can do great things’, he added.
The Tesco Foundation has already collected over 600,000 PLN for the Children’s University Hospital in Kraków. More than 6,000 people participated in the five editions of the Charity Run. Thanks to their help, additional furnishings and equipment were bought for the rehabilitation room in the Department of Physical Therapy, common room in the oncology and haematology ward, and the common room in the Children’s Neurology Clinic.
