- Lance Corporal Kevin Ogilvie, 24, was hit by an IED in September 2012
- He suffered a badly broken back and it was feared he wouldn’t survive
- He was paralysed from the chest down and was told he wouldn’t walk again
- A prototype ‘exo-skeleton’ has now allowed him to take his first steps
- He hopes that he will eventually be able to use it full-time
08:20 EST, 16 April 2014
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09:08 EST, 16 April 2014
An airman paralysed by a Taliban bomb has stunned doctors by taking his first steps in two years – thanks to futuristic ‘Robocop’ legs.
Lance Corporal Kevin Ogilvie, 24, was told he would never walk again when his armoured vehicle hit an improvised explosive device (IED) in Afghanistan in 2012.
While his colleagues suffered burns and broken bones, the father-of-one took the full force of the blast and was paralysed from the chest down.
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Lance Corporal Kevin Ogilvie was paralysed when an bomb exploded by his armoured vehicle in Afghanistan in September 2012. He was paralysed from the chest down and was told he would never walk again
But now, the ex-engineer has defied expectations by taking his first steps thanks to a prototype ‘exo-skeleton’ controlled by a joystick.
Lance Corporal Ogilvie said: ‘It was really cool, but also really strange, to be walking again after so long.
‘It was weird to use, but weird in a good sense, having no feeling or control below my chest made seeing me moving even weirder.’
Lance Corporal Ogilvie, from Lowestoft, Suffolk, was critically injured while on patrol with the Scotland-based 51 Squadron, an RAF regiment, in September 2012.
He was immediately evacuated home where he was met by his wife Aimee and two-year-old daughter, Grace.
Doctors did not think he would make it back to the UK alive, but he soon set about defying their expectations.
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