[Mr Hyok Geon Kim, diaphragm and abdominal paralysis patient, gains hope through the abdominal pressure controller developed by SNU Engineering]<?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

SNU Engineering students volunteer to make an ‘abdominal belt device’ for singer who injured his spine in a car accident and can only communicate through low pitched voices. His first song? The national anthem.

“동해물과 백두산이 마르고 닳도록…” “donghae mulgwa baegdusan-i maleugo dalhdolog”

The singer sang his national anthem, and people choked back tears. He thought he would never sing again, because of the traffic accident that left his cervical spinal cord damaged and paralyzed his limbs. But now he lives to sing another day. This is the story of singer Hyuk Geon Kim member of the group ‘The Cross’ who sang the hit song “Don’t Cry”.

When one receives damage to their cervical spinal cord and paralyses his/her limbs, paralysis occurs in the diaphragm, abdominals and rib muscles as well, rendering the person unable to sing. To sing, one has to have strong movement of the diaphragm and contract the abdominals to exhale sharply, something Mr. Kim was no longer able to do.

<?xml:namespace prefix = "v" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" />SNU Engineering Students developed a device that controls abdominal pressure for singer Hyuk Geon Kim (3^rd from left) allowing him to sing again. The members of the team developing this custom fit disability aid device are smiling for a photoshoot taken last 16^th. The national anthem sang by Hyuk Geon Kim can be seen at (www.chosun.com)

The time of the accident was 11pm, late march last year. After crashing in a motorcycle with a illegally u-turning vehicle, Mr. Kim damaged his 3^rd,4^th and 5^th part of his cervical spinal cord leaving him in a vegetative state for a month. After some tough recovery, he became a paralysis patient wholly dependent on his wheel chair. Only being grated very limited use of his biceps, all he can do is lift is arm slightly and move them forward and back. For someone who used to parachute down during his time in the Special Forces, this left him devastated. What made it worse was the fact that he could no longer sing, which was his entire lifestyle from young. Falling into depression, he told people near him to kill him.

However, the people who revived his hope within as a singer were SNU Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Students. Mr. Kim reached out to the CATCH program for custom fit disability aid devices organized by SNU Engineering Professor Kyu Kin Cho through the help of the National Rehabilitation Center. This program was made for the development of disability aid devices necessary for daily life by paring 1 disabled person with 4~5 engineering students.

Mr. Kim and the students met up every Friday to discuss his needs. Upon the discovery that he could sing a verse when someone applied pressure to his abdominals, they decided to build an abdominal pressure belt which allowed him to control the intensity of the pressure going to his abs. The students countlessly measured the appropriate pressure for his singing and Mr. Kim sang the national anthem a couple of hundred times for these students as well. Every week as the feedback form Mr. Kim came along, the students improved their device. On early December, the belt which could control pressure going to his abdominals by tightening and loosening up through a controller Mr. Kim could move was developed. The cost of development of a 2 million won for motors and parts and the sweat of the students.

Last 16^th, Mr. Kim was able to sing the first verse of the national anthem all by himself for the first time ever since the accident in front of the students at the SNU Engineering lab. It was a miracle achieved after toiling through 3 months of hard work. He told the students “If I could sing the national anthem, I think I would have the confidence to sing other songs. I’ll practice harder and make it a goal to sing ‘Don’t Cry’ in front of other paralysis patients who want to sing”.

Professor Kyu Jin Cho added “This abdominal pressure control device can also help with the low blood pressure problem commonly experienced by paralysis patients. The custom fit disability aid device development program is a win-win program that allows disabled people to participate as a mentor that provides ideas, letting them feel proud and students to gain experience in product development and patents.”

Article : http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2013/12/25/2013122500108.html