In 1992, 23-year-old Eric Schremp was working as a bartender. He loved playing recreational sports, including softball, golf, tennis and weight lifting. He enjoyed the outdoors and spending time with his family. That year, his active lifestyle ended when a diving accident changed his life forever.

Eric dove into an above-ground pool and hit the bottom, injuring his spinal cord at the C-5 and C-6 level (just below the neck) and paralyzing him from the chest down. Eric now must use a wheelchair, and the once-independent young man relies on help from others for almost all daily living activities.

Recently, Eric was fitted with a new implant called an FES (Functional Electrical Stimulator). The FES was integrated into a device in his chest that has eight electrodes tunneled under the skin in the arm to his hand muscles. Combined with an external device, the FES allows Eric to open and close his hand in two different grasps, one for small objects and one for larger objects. Not all paralysis patients meet the qualifications to have this device. "The FES, as of now, is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for people who have the ability to move their shoulder up, down, forward and backward. It is also a requirement that you are able to get your hand to your mouth in a very controlled movement," Eric explains. At the time of his surgery, the FDA had not yet approved the device. In fact, Eric was only the 14th person to ever have the FES Upper Extremity device implanted.

The implant has allowed Eric to regain some of his former independence, as well as self-confidence. "I'm now able to use my hand to write, feed myself, brush my own teeth, shave and spend considerably more time on my own. I've also been able to cut down on the amount of time that I rely on family, friends and paid home health care providers," explains Eric. Eric received his associate's degree in network administration in 2003. He still enjoys sports, but now as a spectator instead of a participant.

Eric knows that additional research funding is drastically needed to continue the search for and development of new devices, like the FES, that can dramatically improve the lives of paralysis patients and restore some measure of their independence. He hopes to see people with less functionality than he had also benefit from similar implants. Eric urges Congress to increase federal funding of musculoskeletal research to help people like him lead more independent and fulfilling lives.