What started with a dive into a backyard pool has led Keith Thomas to a surgery that is helping him move and feel again.

Thomas, from Massapequa, was paralysed from the chest down after breaking his neck in the summer of 2020. He later enrolled in a three-year medical trial at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research for what researchers called a double neural bypass surgery.

The system uses electrodes implanted in Thomas’s brain to detect when he wants to move his arms. Those signals are then routed to his arms and hands to move them.

The “double” part comes from sensors embedded in his fingers, which detect the presence and form of objects in his hands and send that information back to the brain through the electrodes.

The setup has allowed Thomas to move his arms and hands and regain some feeling. He can feel the fur of his dog and the touch of his sister’s hands. He can also tell if he is holding a ball, a coffee cup or an egg, and adjust pressure and control.

After 35 weeks of training with the system, strength in his atrophied arms increased by 86 percent in his right arm and 62 percent in his left. He also gained range of motion.

Before the trial, he could not lift his hand above his neck. Now he can scratch his nose and wipe his mouth.

The progress was presented in a paper published in Nature.

“For me this is an incredible moment,” said Professor Chad Bouton, who led the Feinstein team that developed the technology.

“For years, we have been wanting to really tackle the restoration of movement and the sense of touch and bring those together and we’ve also wanted to create lasting effects,” Bouton said in a video release.

“I think we’re going to continue to see progress and I think it’ll be applicable to the millions of folks around the world who really need this technology.”

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