A 23-year-old man walked across the stage at his college graduation Saturday with the help of an exoskeleton, nearly two years after a life-changing accident left him paralyzed from the chest down.
“It’s not the way I imagined walking across the stage but it really, really meant a lot to me,” Jaiden Picot told ABC News Monday after receiving his degree from Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia.
Picot became paralyzed after sustaining a spinal injury and nerve damage in an August 2024 accident, when he was hit by a truck while riding an electric scooter.
Although the accident upended Picot’s life, he has made significant strides through daily physical and occupational therapy with the Sheltering Arms Institute, a physical rehabilitation facility in Richmond.
“When I started working with Sheltering Arms Institute, there were actually a few other people that had used the exoskeleton before me, and once I [saw] that, I immediately [knew] that’s something that I wanted to do,” Picot said.
An exoskeleton is a wearable device and a type of walking therapy that helps people with spinal cord injuries, according to Sheltering Arms Institute.
Picot was especially motivated to walk at his college graduation because he didn’t have a formal high school graduation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Picot balanced rehab and school full time, logging into classes from the hospital.
“It was really hard in the beginning because I [would] have medical problems with standing up and moving. So I had to train hard, really, every day with the [exoskeleton] to … get the strength to [move] my legs,” Picot explained.
Now that he has his degree, Picot plans to pursue a real estate career and hopes to focus on helping people with disabilities find homes that accommodate their needs.