Researchers at the Mayo Clinic, in collaboration with a team from UCLA, set out to expand on previous work done at the University of Louisville that established a process by which electrical currents directed into the spine could be used to regain control of paralyzed limbs.

Jered Chinnock had an accident three years earlier that injured his back at the sixth thoracic vertebrae. Although researchers initially diagnosed him with a motor complete spinal cord injury it was suspected that dormant connections across his injury, meaning his condition could be reclassified as discomplete.

The Mayo Clinic study started with Chinnock undertaking 22 weeks of intensive physical therapy to prepare his muscles for the spinal cord stimulation.