Israeli veteran Radi Kaiuf did something on Friday, March 15 that might seem impossible for a paraplegic: Complete a 10-km. (6.2 mile) race in Tel Aviv. The feat was accomplished with the assistance of Kaiuf's robotic leg braces.
In Lebanon in 1988, paratrooper Kaiuf's spine was wounded by a bullet, but that didn't stop him from training for weeks for the race that would see him leave his wheelchair behind.
Kaiuf, 46, started the race on Friday at 6 a.m. Thanks to the ReWalk device, "an Israeli invention that allows paraplegics to walk with the use of crutches," as described by the LA Times, Kaiuf finished with a time of 3 hours and 55 minutes.
Kaiuf's time was almost an hour below his target.
"This was my dream, and it feels great to achieve it,"' Kaiuf said.
Doctors had originally told Kaiuf that "he'd never again walk or have a normal life," the LA Times reports.
"But Kaiuf ... had other ideas. He decided he would not allow the injury to defeat or define him. Over the years he married and had four children. He learned to drive with a specially equipped car, exercised with a hand-powered bicycle and even went skiing in a wheelchair."
With his 55-pound exoskeleton machine, Kaiuf took another step toward a normal life in a race that will not be his last moment in the spotlight. Kaiuf will most likely show off the ReWalk to President Obama on his visit to Israel next week.
"Accepting my handicap was not easy," Kaiuf said. "I still haven't accepted it to this day. That's probably why I am always doing crazy things. It's my way of rejecting the disability."
Kaiuf's completion of the 10-km. race marks the longest such continuous run by someone using the ReWalk machine.
Though the ReWalk machine — retailing for $68,000 — has been on sale for use in Europe since autumn, it is not yet available for use in the U.S., pending FDA approval.
"There's a stigma about being in a wheelchair, as if your mental capacities are affected as well," Kaiuf said. "Being upright makes a big difference. People regard me as normal."
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