A former jockey who was left paralyzed from the waist down after a horse riding accident was able to walk again thanks to a cutting-edge piece of robotic tech: a $100,000 ReWalk Personal exoskeleton.
When one of its small parts malfunctioned, however, the entire device stopped working. Desperate to gain his mobility back, he reached out to the manufacturer, Lifeward, for repairs. But it turned him away, claiming his exoskeleton was too old, *404 media *reports.
“After 371,091 steps my exoskeleton is being retired after 10 years of unbelievable physical therapy,” Michael Straight posted on Facebook earlier this month. “The reasons why it has stopped is a pathetic excuse for a bad company to try and make more money.”
Fortunately, Lifeward eventually capitulated and Straight was able to get his exoskeleton repaired — but that was only after an intense campaign in which he went on local TV, got highlighted in a horse industry publication, and gained steam on social media. If it weren’t for that, he could still be struggling to find a way to get his mobility back again.
Uhg, needed bad PR before they changed their mind
The future is stupid, we were promised jetpacks, not planned obsolescence mobility devices.
Prosthetics that are no longer supported, should be fully open sourced.And the copyright should immediately expire.
Support your products, or let others do it.
This is why nobody should ever put any tech in their brain. Among 50 billion other reasons.
Oh that already happened too. A bunch of blind people got implants and the company abandoned them.
Even for a corporation that is fucked up.
We need to stop buying into this whole beneficial corporation idea.
He shouldn’t stand for this!
He can’t. He’s paralyzed and his exoskeleton is broken.
On a more serious note, the 404media article (login wall) reports the problem was that the wristwatch controller for the exoskeleton had its battery wire’s solder joint break. They seem to be trying to frame it as a right to repair issue, but that’s a trivial repair for anyone with basic electronics experience.
It’s a trivial repair assuming that’s the extent of the damage and there’s not any quirks associated with an extremely complex medical device that has no documentation whatsoever. Like maybe after not having the controller’s power supply connected for such a length of time there needs to be a calibration process upon bringing it back to life that can only be done with proprietary software
The biggest thing though is that by going in and fixing it yourself you open yourself to the possibility that the company will now say “oh this was worked on by someone else and that’s why it’s broken, we won’t work on it now”. That’s the state of repair rights in America, vendors are openly hostile to people who fix their own things even if they do it sufficiently. We used to have political representation that gave us regulations to allow us to work on and even modify our cars without impacting the warranty but that’s been eroded and there’s not really anything of that nature for tech stuff (other than judgements saying broken warranty seals don’t count for anything)
here’s not really anything of that nature for tech stuff
The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act does not exclude tech stuff. The problem is that it’s a lot harder to work on tech stuff without insider information than 1970s cars.
Best to use the archived links bypasses the login barrier, as well as paywalls.
Guilty upvote for you
Ghost in the Shell called it thirty years ago.
I work in appliance repair. My favorite appliance to fix are sub zero refrigerators. They’re easy to work on, straight forward and the company continues to support their product as far back as models from the 1970s.
Subzero makes nothing more than household appliances a thankless industry plagued by planner obsolescence and they can supply parts for their appliances longer than a medical company.
Got any recommendations in the 5k range?
This is a very good question.
I’m assuming you mean a range around $5000?
In that case there’s really not much in that specific price range.
Ranges in general can cost between 500 and 3000 dollars for a regular range you can get at your local appliance retailer. Here in the states that would be like home Depot or Lowe’s.
If you wanted more high end than that you’d have to go much higher up in price. Like past $10000. It’s a weird market for ranges.
I recommend Frigidaire for cooking appliances in general they make really good ranges. For less than $1000 dollars you can get a very decent appliance.
Anything related to healthcare has no business being any closer to the whims of “the market” than the public roads.
It would be unheard of for a government to stop maintaining a public road because whomever was supplying some ingredient of the asphalt said that particular mix is “to old and the new mix is not compatible with the roads created using the old mix”.
They don’t want to do it anymore, fine, then provide whatever is needed for someone else to maintain it for the cost of the materials to print/email/upload to GitHub the technical documents. It should not be legal to get someone hooked on your life altering medical device then rug pull them like this.
I was ready to hear something like a story from someone who had signed onto a medical trial and was upset the trial was ending. Nope, instead an absurdly short support period that seemingly is fed by the same culture of replacement over repair that has infected our economy.
cant a battery be rigged to fit? no modders around?
Immeasurably great reporting. This was painful to yet, but a blessing to know.
This very much sucks.
Edit: message received. Sorry.
he’s not asking for a warranty claim or replacement, he’s asking for a repair service. it’s like taking your 10 year old accord to the service center to get some bushings/mounts/battery or whatever replaced
I don’t think anyone should expect a battery replacement to be free after 10 years, but it shouldn’t cost $100,000
Respectfully requesting that in the future, you read articles before replying.
And:
According to Straight, the issue was caused by a piece of wiring that had come loose from the battery that powered a wristwatch used to control the exoskeleton. This would cost peanuts for Lifeward to fix up, but it refused to service anything more than five years old, Straight said.
“I find it very hard to believe after paying nearly $100,000 for the machine and training that a $20 battery for the watch is the reason I can’t walk anymore?” he wrote on Facebook.
This is all over a battery in a watch.
dude’s paid $10k a year just to do what we can do for free. I don’t think that’s “pretty good”. if I pay $100k on anything it better work for life
lol lol
You: he was about to move around for a few years and should be happy with that and accept his paralyzed state
