Chistina Tocquigny has successfully created the first orthotics piece designed to help a stroke victim, Clarence Young, at Tarleton State University.

“Tarleton has some amazing resources that I don’t think enough people are aware of. We have 3D printers & scanners, laser cutters and a Motion Capture studio. I am proud to be a part of a school and a program that provides such exciting resources like the technology available in the Maker Spot and in the Fine Arts department,” Tocquigny said.

Tocquigny is currently working on making a second orthotic from the Maker’s Spot.

“The hope is to eventually make full sets of right and left hand orthotics, in small, medium and large sizes and in a range of angles to accommodate as many people as possible.”

Dr. Joe Priest, Director of the Lab for Wellness and Motor Behavior, believes the same thing. The approach that those in the Kinesiology lab, including Priest, work out their clients in the way that they seem fit that day.

“Orthotics are very similar to our overall approach.” Priest notes that Clarence Young’s orthotic helps him to stay “in a good position, have all kinds of movement activities and they work him out while his wrist is extended.”

Young’s old orthotic was made by Priest from his home.

“I bought this mold-able plastic online that came in a 4-by-4 sheet.” When the sheet is put in boiling water it is very loose like paper, but when you take the sheet out of the water, “you have five seconds to mold it and if it doesn’t work you put it back in the water and pull it back out.” He eventually got the orthotic to the shape that he liked for Clarence. “The beauty is what’s good for Clarence is good for the others that have wrist problems.” With this old orthotic, they will use it for the basis for the Maker Spot to “scale it and flip it.”

Young loved the orthotic that Dr. Priest made him from home. “It’s fantastic,” he said. “It’s light and it fits good.”

Buddy Dawes, Kinesiology graduate student, has worked with Clarence for over a year.

“Due to his nerve damage, it’s good to have a better angular flex towards the nerve to help the arm and the elbow. The orthotic flexes out the wrist and stretches the ligaments.”

He went on to say that those that printed the orthotic from the Maker Spot are going to try and get the 3D lab to make an orthotic that “was similar to the one that Priest made Clarence.”

Buddy has gotten to know Clarence and has built a friendship with him and his wife since he has been interning at Tarleton. “The guy is a hard worker and he’s getting better. I’ve known him for well over a year and he’s progressing.”

Young isn’t the only stroke victim that the Kinesiology lab regularly sees. There are many different patients that come in on regular schedules to be looked at.

“We have 24 stroke patients,” Priest said. “That’s probably more than anybody else in the country because all of these stroke patients have been released from medical care.”

Priest also addressed the fact that this was the last resort for some of his clients. “They have nowhere to go. So, the rehab world turns them loose on the street with nothing to do and no way to get better. So, we’re here for them forever; we don’t go away.”

One of the many patients that they see is Cathy Ratcliff. Ratcliff is a regular patient who comes and gets treated for the half of her body that is paralyzed.

Dexter Vaughn, fitness management graduate student, said, “We took one of the first prototypes of orthotics that they took with the 3D printer and they are using it on Cathy.” He went on to say, “we’ve seen enormous amounts of improvement and voluntary muscle movements in her hand.

Her doctors in Fort Worth told her she would never walk or use her hand ever again. She is actually benefiting off one of the orthotics that they made with the 3D printer.”

Ratcliff had come into the Tarleton Kinesiology lab in a wheel chair and now she uses a cane to walk.  Inside of the lab, they train her without either one of those. “We are defying the odds,” Dexter said.

Priest has written a novel about the orthotics and what Tarleton does; it will be published next month in New York City. It is titled, “After Everybody Else Gave Up.” It will tell this story about his patients to the world. “This may be the future of healthcare. We are able to offer it for free because they have trouble working for a living and finding a job because they are paralyzed on one side. So, we are able to provide this training for them with no charge.” He went on to say, “When the book comes out, I hope 2000 other universities in the country call Tarleton and wanna know how to do it.”

“We’re not like we were two weeks ago,” Priest said. “We’re different; we’re better now than we were.”