Eight-year-old Trent McGee was paralyzed from his neck down. He was riding in the back of his family's station wagon when the car was hit by a suspect fleeing the police. "He was a very active child who loved sports," said Charles McGee of his son. "For months he just laid on a pillow. All he had was breathing treatments and suctioning to remove the mucus from his throat and lungs." As the little boy comprehended the seriousness and permanence of his condition, he showed signs of severe depression.
Quality of life has become a topic of increasing importance and effort in health care in recent years. It has become one of the most challenging aspects of patient care, especially for a person who is paralyzed. How does a quadriplegic patient—one who is paralyzed from the neck down, a person who is dependent on someone else for almost everything—attain any quality of life? And how do health care workers and an institution whose motto is "To Make Man Whole" relate to a patient who cannot be made whole?
By human-computer interface technologies . . . interventional informatics . . . perceptual psychophysics . . . biocybernetics . . . and virtual reality.
David Warner, MD, PhD, known as Dave by the children he served and admired, is a 1995 graduate of Loma Linda University School of Medicine. He entered medical school with a wealth of knowledge about computers and a valuable network of contacts with people in aerospace, the military, and entertainment. Warner matched existing computer technologies with health care in ways never before conceived. A participant in Loma Linda's MD/PhD program, Warner focused on the physiological basis of information processing. Applications of his research enabled his team of researchers to develop procedures, using off-the-shelf technologies, to help severely handicapped patients achieve goals never before thought possible. It was technology transfer with a heart. Warner studied the neurological system as an information processing network, a link between the mind and the outside world.
Virtual reality was first used by the military applying interactive computer technology to stage mock battles and to train pilots. Then the entertainment industry saw its potential, leading to applications such as computer games and adventure rides.
Further application of this powerful technology was developed at Loma Linda University Medical Center and Loma Linda University Children's Hospital to help sick children and severely handicapped people attain quality of life. For example, by using only the muscles of the face, physically challenged people would be able not only to control their environment but also to make a contribution to society and to enjoy feelings of accomplishment made possible by such contributions.
A story on the front page of California's The Orange County Register (October 25, 1994) told of Warner's work with Trent McGee, the 8-year-old boy who had been paralyzed from the neck down while riding in the back of his family's station wagon. His reality had caused severe depression. But once Trent got involved with virtual technology he experienced a significant change in perspective.
Warner attached sensors to the muscles of Trent's face and taught him how to operate the BioCar. A remote-controlled car from Radio Shack was modified so that it could be controlled from the parallel port of a standard computer. Trent could operate the BioCar by simply manipulating the muscles in his face. A smile moved the car forward. Raising his eyebrows moved it backward. Flexing his left cheek turned the car to the left. Flexing his right cheek turned it to the right. Television glasses received signals from a small TV camera on the front of the little car and made it possible for Trent to chase his brother and sister around the house and to "see" inside his bedroom for the first time since the accident. (The same system that allowed Trent to control the BioCar could be adapted easily to control his wheel chair and to empower him to become a functional member of society.)
An amazing thing happened. Not only did the little boy come out of his depression, but he used his facial muscles so much that he was overriding his respirator. At the end of the sessions, the expensive prototype equipment was taken back to the laboratory. "In a few years the cost will be much less," Warner said. "But how do you tell a kid to wait until then?"
Make-A-Wish Foundation has since given Trent his own computer system and toy car.
Others have been inspired by Warner's work. During a nationwide broadcast, live from the Loma Linda University Children's Hospital, technicians contacted by CNBC's "America's Talking" volunteered to get involved by offering the use of electronic servos, devices that are used in animatronics and robotics, to help Warner multiply his efforts on behalf of severely handicapped patients.
Warner worked with more than 100 spinal cord and brain trauma patients from throughout Southern California. "CNN World News" recorded Warner expressing his feelings about his efforts: "When one of those kids looks up and you see the smile on their face when you've given them a new capability...that is so incredible...so motivating."