00:00 What's now a walk in the park used to be impossible for Marc.
00:05 The 63-year-old Frenchman has advanced Parkinson's disease and used to experience frequent freezing
00:11 episodes and other mobility problems.
00:14 Now though, he can walk almost normally again after becoming the first person to receive
00:19 a new Swiss-designed implant.
00:21 "I can do three or four kilometres, but then I stop.
00:26 Before I did 300 metres at most.
00:30 I can go to the library, I can go to the swimming pool alone, whereas before there was no point."
00:38 The technology was developed by researchers at Lausanne University Hospital, who'd previously
00:43 pioneered similar breakthroughs helping paraplegic people walk again.
00:48 The pair implanted a complex system of electrodes at specific points along Marc's spinal cord,
00:53 activating muscles in the legs in the same way as nerve cells in the brain.
00:58 "We had to position them very precisely in order to activate each of the leg muscles
01:03 symmetrically.
01:04 And then we connected these electrodes to a stimulator or a form of pacemaker that can
01:08 be programmed from the outside, so it's all under the skin."
01:13 According to the World Health Organization, the incidence of Parkinson's disease has doubled
01:18 over the past 25 years, affecting more than 8.5 million people globally.
01:24 The Swiss team plans to carry out tests on six more people next year.
01:29 However, it's not clear whether all Parkinson's patients will respond to therapy.
01:34 Doctors say it could be another five to six years before they've collected the data they
01:39 need.
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