Wheelchair athlete gets state-of-the-art leg braces

Gail Gaeng walks with the help of braces and runs with the help of her wheelchair. New technology now is making it easier for her to walk.

Gail, 16, was born with nerve damage, giving her limited use of her leg muscles. With the aid of braces, she can walk. Last week she entered into a new phase of mobility when she got a set of braces from Ability Prosthetics and Orthotics in Frederick .

Known as bionic leg braces, they have a computerized sensor to help the braces bend and straighten her legs at the knees for a more natural walk.

"I'm using muscles I've never used," Gail said.

Getting used to the braces will take time. She now wears them for short periods every day.

Gail plays basketball and competes for her high school track team using specially designed wheelchairs that allow her to maneuver quickly. A junior at Gov. Thomas Johnson High School, she will continue to compete in wheelchair sports and is looking at playing wheelchair basketball in college.

"There are seven colleges that offer scholarships in wheelchair women's basketball," she said. She has talked to coaches at the University of Illinois and the University of Alabama.

Gail plays for a wheelchair basketball team in Baltimore. Practices are on weekends. Life has gotten a lot easier for her parents since she began driving this year. She drives a Jeep with hand controls.

Gail competes in wheelchair track, mostly to stay in shape for basketball. She does sprints, from 200 meters to 800 meters. On weekends, she does a long run of 12 to 14 miles in her road wheelchair to build endurance.

Gail has a compact chair for basketball and a low-slung, triangular wheelchair for track. She uses another chair, with heavier-duty wheels, for road training.

Gail also lifts weights and swims at the Frederick YMCA. All this gives her plenty of upper body strength. The new braces will help her better develop the muscles in her legs.

Fewer than half the nerves in Gail's legs work properly.

"Since nerves fire your muscles, that results in less muscle capacity," she said.

Until she was 2, her parents thought she was paralyzed. Then she started crawling. Gail is the youngest of six children.

"All my brothers and sisters play sports," she said. "I was raised to love sports." Basketball has become her favorite. One of her friends won the women's wheelchair division of the Chicago Marathon.

"There are so many options now," she said.

Her old braces lock when she stands. She must unlock them each time she sits. The new braces have a sensor to lock and unlock the braces. Gail must swing each leg behind her, extending the leg fully. "It's kind of a kick-back," she said. She will get used to the gait once she is accustomed to the braces.

The sensor measures the position of her legs while walking, and allows her to lock the brace while standing still.

She now walks with a bit of a limp. With the new braces, she will have a nearly normal gait. She will still use hand controls to drive, but the braces allow her to get in and out of cars more easily.

The padding on the braces, attached with Velcro, can be washed and dried by machine. The battery for the electronic sensor is recharged each evening, much like a cell-phone battery.

Her experience with Ability Prosthetics and Orthotics has left Gail fascinated with the technology, and she is thinking of making it her career.

Gail played traditional basketball in elementary school, and began playing wheelchair basketball in seventh grade. She traveled to Japan last year with the national women's wheelchair basketball team. A few years before that, she traveled to Australia with the national women's junior team.

She will travel to Japan again in February with the women's team. She hopes to make the Paralympics in 2012 and compete in London.

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