EDINBURG — Aaron Bazan beamed as he took several steps forward Thursday morning.
As a high school football player, Bazan used to move a lot faster but, following an injury during a game last month, the steps he took that morning with the help of an exoskeleton device at DHR Health were a big accomplishment.
A freshman at Pharr San Juan Alamo Early High College High School, Bazan, 14, is recovering from a traumatic brain injury, or TBI, he sustained during that game.
“He had to have an emergency craniotomy due to a subdural haematoma,” said his mother, Dania Reyes. “The doctors were quick to act on that finding and that’s why he’s here so now he’s doing the rehab part.”
When Bazan was hurt that day, it wasn’t just one hit that caused his injury, but a series of hits throughout the game.
“From the reviews of the plays that he had done — he was playing both offense and defense — and usually when he was on defense, we noticed that he was making hit after hit after hit,” Reyes said.
At one point, she noticed Bazan going toward the sideline toward his trainer. She said the trainer had him try to walk but he was off balance.
“So when I noticed he was off balance … I ran a little bit closer to where they could hear me and I just told the trainer to just get him out of there,” Reyes said.
He later started walking toward the paramedics and by the time he made it to the stretcher, he basically threw himself on it.
“I was just so scared,” she said.
Bazan was rushed to DHR Health where he underwent surgery for about three hours during which doctors removed a large blood clot.
He spent two weeks in the pediatric intensive care unit before being transferred to the DHR Health Rehabilitation Hospital last Friday to begin his therapy.
Thursday morning marked his first time using the EksoGT exoskeleton, a device that was first introduced at DHR Health in 2017. It is the only hospital south of San Antonio to have it.
“The exoskeleton robot allows for neuroplasticity to take place so in other words it allows him to move what he can and when he’s unable to complete a movement, the robot will take over and give him that muscle memory,” said Libby Garza, a physical therapist assistant.”
“The more he walks he in it, it allows him to stand in the current posture where his hips, knees, and ankles are in the right position and then it allows him to make those movements in the right plane so that he’s not deviating or creating movements that are not aligned properly,” Garza added.
During his time there, Garza said he’s made good progress.
“Every single day he’s improving beyond what we expect from him,” she said. “His first couple of days here he had a lot of trouble moving his leg and his arm and every single day, we’ve seen improvements in how much he can move and how strong he is.”
Now, Bazan is able to take steps with the parallel bars and the rolling walker without assistance.
“The robot is just an extra type of exercise to improve the strength that he has,” Gaza said. “So we allow him to get in and out of bed on his own, which he can; we help him transfer but he’s able to take steps on his own.”
“We help where he needs it, but we give him that opportunity to move as much as he can so that his body can relearn how to do everything he can,” she said.
Reyes said her son will most likely be at the rehab hospital for about two weeks and then receive outpatient treatment.
With any neurological injury, Garza said the prognosis is vague so they’re just going to take it one day at a time.
“We work with what he’s giving us so if he’s needing a lot of help today and then not needing a lot of help tomorrow, we kind of run with that and that’s how we tailor our sessions to what he can do,” Garza said.
“The doctors couldn’t guarantee me anything so I’m just grateful to God and the surgeons and everyone that attended (to) him at DHR that night because they moved swiftly, they moved quickly,” Reyes said. “They performed what they needed to do on him and they did a job well done and I’m just grateful for all that.”
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