Alexander Alusheff

Lansing State Journal

LANSING - Cindy Pohl considers Dec. 14, 1996 her second birthday.

That's when the Delta Township woman, 31 at the time, blacked out from low blood sugar while traveling on Interstate 96 West near Fowlerville, crashing into the median. Her car rolled at least five times before coming to a stop upside down, her left arm caught outside the window.

When she awoke from a coma three weeks later, doctors told her she might never walk again or use her left arm.

"When they said that, I could have said, 'Give me a recliner to sit in,'" said Pohl, 51, a respiratory therapist at Sparrow's St. Lawrence Hospital. "But I'm a little stubborn. If you tell me no, I will do everything it takes to say yes."

It took her a year of physical therapy to learn to walk again, but even after nearly 20 years, Pohl's left arm never recovered. Her body still bears the scars from the accident and the surgeries that followed.

That didn't stop her from trying to get back the function of her arm.

In May 2015, her therapist at Sparrow referred her to Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital, the health system's partner in Grand Rapids, to explore the possibility of getting an orthotic device to restore some functions to her left arm.

In February, she was fitted with a MyoPro. The brace fits around her arm and when she wants to move it, her brain sends a signal to the muscle, which the device reads and activates the motor to help move it in the desired direction. Pohl demonstrated the device on Monday morning at the Sparrow Professional Building, lifting a bag and opening a door with muscles she hasn't used in 20 years. She is the first one to receive an orthotic device from the hospital.

"It's not the machine moving my arm, it's my own muscles," Pohl explained. "That's amazing to me that these muscles work."

There are still kinks. When Pohl first put the brace on, the arm started moving erratically up and down. She had to dry her arm off and reattach the device.

"It's a little sensitive," she said. "It's like a new muscle being taught. I term myself a work in progress."

Though Pohl has gone 20 years without the use of her left arm, it hasn't stopped her from doing daily tasks such as work and going grocery shopping.

"For not being able to use her arm for 20 years, to see her strap on the device is amazing," said Brittany Begerow, Pohl's othotist, who assisted in demonstrating the device. "It's been a process. She's still getting there."

Pohl said the device makes it easier to shop now, because she can put groceries in her car without having to put the bags down first before opening the door. Life is a little more convenient.

"People who see this story may think these are silly little tasks," she said, "but my advice is, for one day, put your non-dominant hand behind your back and see what it's like."

Alexander Alusheff is a reporter at the Lansing State Journal. Contact him at (517) 388-5973 or aalusheff@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexalusheff.