College student who suffered paralyzing spinal injury crosses graduation stage using robotic exoskeleton

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT/Gray News) - Less than a year after an accident left him paralyzed from the chest down, a 22-year-old student in Virginia is walking across the graduation stage.

With endless determination and the help of a robotic exoskeleton, Jaiden Picot is proving anything is possible.

Picot was hit by a truck while riding an e-scooter to work last August, causing him to sustain a C4 spinal cord injury.

He took a semester off school and never thought he would graduate on time, let alone walk at his graduation ceremony.

Picot began to do physical therapy at Sheltering Arms Institute to regain some mobility while also continuing to focus on his academic goals.

After about two weeks of physical therapy, Picot decided he would learn to use a robotic exoskeleton to help him walk. He said he was motivated to try it after seeing video of another graduate using one.

“It just made me work harder, I have a chance to actually walk across the stage. I graduated (high school) in 2020 during COVID, so I never had the opportunity to walk the stage and now I do, so it just made me go harder,” Picot said.

He said he had to work to get more comfortable with the machine and manage his blood pressure while doing so, knowing his consistency would pay off.

Picot used the exoskeleton every day while he was an inpatient and was even able to get up to 11,000 steps an hour.

He continued to work with his physical therapists like Eli Haag during the months leading up to his graduation from Virginia Union University.

“Graduating college is not easy, and going through rehabilitation after a spinal cord injury is not easy. Doing both at the same time is impressive, and it’s a testament to how hard he works and his overall work ethic,” Haag said. “It is one of the highlights of my career for sure, to be able to share this moment with him. It’s something that I know I will for the rest of my life, and I hope he does as well.”

Picot said he would never have been able to accomplish the physical feat without the of his mother and his girlfriend, who crossed the stage right before him.

“This is just a phase of my life. It’s not over. I do have the potential to walk again, so we’re just going to keep the ball rolling,” Picot said.

While Picot participated in the business school’s graduation, the team at Sheltering Arms says he also recently became interested in science.

He plans to continue focusing on his recovery and potentially attend graduate school to pursue pharmaceutical studies later on.

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