Standing paraplegic patient kicks ball to open World Cup


Brazilian neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis holds a soccer ball covered with a hood of electronic sensors in Sao Paulo May 21, 2014. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - A standing paraplegic man kicked the first football ball of the World Cup in Sao Paulo on Thursday, a triumphant moment for a research project aiming to give patients who have lost feeling in their legs the ability to walk again.

Brazilian neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis, normally based at North Carolina's Duke University, has developed a robotic exoskeleton to assist patients' movement.

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