Exoskeleton helps groom walk down aisle

Jordan Basile, left, and Matt Ficarra, center, exchange wedding vows.

Jordan Basile, left, and Matt Ficarra, center, exchange wedding vows.

Published Oct 20, 2014

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Dewitt, New York - Matt Ficarra has been paralysed from the chest down since an accident three years ago, but that didn't stop him from walking down the aisle at his wedding.

Ficarra was able to stand and walk during the wedding ceremony in suburban Syracuse on Saturday with the help of a battery-powered robotic exoskeleton called an Ekso.

He tells the Syracuse Post-Standard newspaper that he's been driving to a rehabilitation centre in Allentown, Pennsylvania, weekly since April to practice walking with the apparatus.

Ficarra has been paralysed since he broke his neck in a boating accident in 2011. He married Jordan Basile on Saturday in the ballroom of the Doubletree Hotel in DeWitt.

The couple leaves on Monday for a honeymoon in Jamaica. - Sapa-AP

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