There is some encouraging news for Tyler Schilhabel, the Independence High School quarterback left paralyzed by an ATV accident last fall.
He just completed an intense three week rehabilitation program in Carlsbad. It's called Project Walk, and people from around the world are coming to this place not just for hope, but for results.
"My attitude is still the same. I'm still optimistic."
Tyler Schilhabel is an athlete and he's focused. It's been six months since the ATV accident that took away all feeling from the chest down. And, the reality has made him even stronger.
"I just feel a lot better about myself. I'm more comfortable with what's going on, I became a lot more independent," said Tyler.
That independence has taken him on the golf course and skiing this past month in Colorado. It's that drive and commitment that brought him to Carlsbad, California where Tyler is taking part in a specialized program called Project Walk.
Project Walk is all about getting people out of their wheelchairs and reintroducing gravitational loading and stimulating the body into trying to recover through thousands of repetitions of exercise.
"When we talk about somebody reconnecting here, we're not talking about the axons regenerating through the scar tissue and the injury site. We're talking about reactivation and reorganization where the central nervous system is reorganizing itself to work around the injury site. What may be happening in out clients is where the unaffected portions of the spinal cord may be taking over some of the functions of the affected portion," said Eric Harness, Project Walk Director of Research.
Tyler's injury occurred in the thoracic area of the spine T4 paralyzing him from the chest down.
Through visualization and mentally trying to do the exercise, a signal is sent from the brain, with the trainers performing the action a sensory signal is sent that will hopefully reroute themselves and reconnect again.
"That's one of the main parts is using your mind to figure out what you're doing even though you can't feel. You really have to use your brain to think about how those movements are and once that happens those nerve pathway can connect and everything will start working."
And it's a 66-year-old quadriplegic man who came to Project Walk 12 years ago, who is now providing the inspiration Tyler needs to literally see that goal.
"At four months, I hadn't moved anything, and at six months I was standing up, admittedly with two people standing at my side, but I was putting weight on my legs," said Michael Thomas, Project Walk client.
A year after that he was walking.
"I can see that he's enjoying it, he's getting the sense that he's not working out to figure out how to get in and out of a chair or car. He's now got the goal to regain my ability to walk."
'It's a lot, but it's gotten easier day by day, even just being here to see people where they're at where they are now. Anything's possible," said Tyler.
With help from community donations, the Schilhabel family was able to pay for three weeks of the very expensive therapy. Project Walk is simultaneously teaching Tyler's dad the exercises so that when their time here is over they can continue the critically important repetitions daily here in Bakersfield.
When progress is made they'll come to Project Walk for program adjustments and a step forward in recovery.
"It will be a challenge, but I'm very optimistic that I'll keep the same attitude and work ethic when I leave here. But, right now I'm just getting better and making the smallest improvements that I can to ultimately lead up to the goal that I have set for myself, which is to walk again," said Tyler.
About 15% of the more than 1,000 wheelchair-bound patients who have participated in this program, do just that. They have literally walked away from Project Walk.
Tyler does have an advantage because he is under the age of 18. He still has growth factors in his body that are still active and they may assist him in the recovery process.
