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Paralyzed veteran in Wisconsin walks with help of exoskeleton

A Wisconsin veteran paralyzed from the waist down took an important step forward in life this week, both figuratively and literally.

At 59 years old, Dean Juntunen says staying active makes him happy.

In fact, he's competed in 91 wheelchair marathons, and is working to kayak the entire coastline of Lake Superior.

Juntunen has been paralyzed for nearly 30 years, but now he's walking.

"One of the physical therapists told me you gotta think of it like dancing," Dean says, "I'm like, Oh, I'm in trouble. I never could dance.' She says how about cross-country skiing. I said 'Yeah, that I can do.' So I started transferring the weight and it worked out real good."

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He's the first veteran from the Milwaukee VA Hospital taking a robotic exoskeleton home for four months as part of a nationwide study.

Physical therapist Zach Hodgson says, "This is a fully powered exoskeleton, so it is set by the computer. We can adjust how long it takes to step, the delay between steps, but really it's kind of Dean making sure that his balance is right over the robot shifting his weight appropriately as we would when we're walking."

Other veterans with a spinal cord injury who qualify are welcome to join the research.

The goal is to see how useful this pricey technology can be.

There are 160 veterans across 15 different VA centers participating in the exoskeleton research study.