Robotic exoskeleton allows paralyzed man to walk down the aisle at his wedding


With the help of a robotic exoskeleton, a man paralyzed from the chest down was able to walk down the aisle at his wedding in DeWitt, New York.
"It feels great to be married," Matt Ficarra told the Syracuse Post-Standard. "And I am so happy to have met my goal of walking at my wedding."
Ficarra, 30, was paralyzed following a 2011 boating accident. After proposing to his now-wife, Jordan Basile, last December, he decided he was not going to be in a wheelchair on his wedding day. To make this happen, in April Ficarra starting driving the seven hours to Allentown, Pennsylvania, once a week. At the Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Center, he practiced walking with the Ekso, a battery-powered, portable device that straps onto a person with paralyzed legs and lets them walk.
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Ficarra's family was amazed to see him make his way down the aisle. "It's spectacular," his father, Frank Ficarra, told the Post-Standard. "He doesn't give up on anything. He's a gem." Watch the video below to see Ficarra's big moment. --Catherine Garcia
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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