It was a long road for Cronin, involving “dozens of doctors and specialists,” a seemingly endless series of infections requiring more surgeries, 21 courses of antibiotics, and 19 rounds of steroids while he was laid up for months. He reports that “certain areas on my legs are dead, my feet are numb, I have bladder dysfunction and take medication and injections for bowel and bladder functions, but I’m still lucky—some people are paralyzed from the waist down.”

While undergoing therapy at the Elkins Park Moss Rehab facility, Cronin heard a member of his care team mention a new alternative to the standard orthotic systems that had proved inadequate for his needs.
At 6’4” and 260-265 pounds, I was too tall and too heavy for most of the KAFOs (knee-ankle-foot orthoses) available,” he explained. “I couldn’t propel a regular KAFO, so I just used the wheelchair, walker, and super-strong forearm crutches; but I needed to get off the couch. Someone suggested that I talk to Lawall to find out more about the new system; I was surprised to find out my wife had gone to school with Ann (Lawall) Roque as a kid, so I picked up the phone.”

Pete Michener, CPO, remembers Cronin’s first visit to Lawall’s Pottstown facility on November 13, and the logic that led to their endorsement of Cronin as a candidate for Ottobock’s new C-Brace®.

“We knew that with his lack of strength—incomplete paralysis of both lower extremities—a conventional KAFO or even stance control KAFOs would not benefit him at all and would be contraindicated. He did not have enough strength for the other KAFOs to advance his legs, and we felt they would actually cause further damage and potentially hurt him.”

Where the standard functions of previous orthosis systems had been limited exclusively to locking and releasing the knee joint, the C-Brace is the first to go a step further: The unique functions of the SSCO® (stance and swing phase control orthosis) allow both the swing phase and the stance phase to be controlled for the first time. This means the user has control through the entire gait cycle—in real time.

An ankle movement sensor transmits signals to the microprocessor-controlled hydraulic knee joint unit, which is integrated into a carbon fiber frame along with the electronics. The C-Brace’s microprocessor receives and processes sensor signals and controls walking in real time. In addition, a knee angle sensor measures the current position of the joint every 0.02 seconds, noting flexion of the knee joint and its angular velocity, and allowing the hydraulic resistances to respond appropriately, controlling flexion and extension based on the phase of gait.

Its advantages of support and stability while restoring more natural walking function seemed to make it the perfect choice for Cronin.

At that point only 60 people in the United States had been fit with the new C-Brace, and Cronin was the youngest candidate to be considered. Obtaining insurance coverage for the braces, still considered “experimental” by most healthcare insurance providers, would be an uphill battle, requiring extensive paperwork and evaluations, but Cronin played an active and enthusiastic role in the time-consuming battle to get coverage for these braces—potentially the most appropriate solution for his needs.

Six months later, in May of 2014, Cronin visited Lawall’s office and met with a team including Michener, Richard Bash, CPO, and a representative from Ottobock who helped to fit Cronin with a set of trial C-Braces in order to assess their suitability, and Cronin’s ability to succeed with them.

“He had broken two pairs of crutches before coming to us, and was experiencing compression of the brachial plexus and causing numbness down both his arms as a result of using crutches. His gait with crutches was slow—1.2 feet per second, well below the norm of 4.17 feet per second for his age group. He was just barely getting along with crutches. We were hopeful that the C-Braces would be the answer for him,” Michener remembers. “We were so thrilled when he walked!”

Cronin was also hopeful—but admits that the C-Braces far exceeded his expectations. “The first trial I had with them was awesome!” he exclaimed. “I was more than willing; they put the left leg on—which was my weakest leg—then they tried the second leg; then I started walking around. My pain was SO diminished I thought it was gone! I didn’t have to lean over or hunch on the crutches! The first time I stood up in two years was when I was in the C-Braces. It was absolutely amazing. My wife was crying. I walked and walked—it was the most I had walked in a long time!”

Immensely encouraged as a result of his success wearing the trial braces, Cronin resumed the battle with insurance providers and intensified his efforts to raise funds for the braces.

“Jerry was a great advocate,” Michener noted. “We supported him, but he wrote three pages back in May after he had been through the C-Brace trial, pleading his case.”

Cronin not only wrote letters, he spent countless hours on the phone with insurance company representatives, and went through six appeal processes—even including a trip into Philadelphia for a face-to-face meeting with his insurance company to make an appeal. In the end the braces were denied.