Doctors gave him only a 4 percent chance of walking again, and DeVlieger, a blond 22-year-old, said one of his hands was locked in a claw-like position.
DeVlieger said he has made significant progress since shortly after he began working out at NeuroXcel, a North Palm Beach training center for those who have suffered brain and spine injuries. NeuroXcel’s strength trainers painstakingly train clients to learn to walk again.
“I’ve been sweating a lot,” DeVlieger said.
Doctors gave him only a 4 percent chance of walking again, and DeVlieger, a blond 22-year-old, said one of his hands was locked in a claw-like position.
DeVlieger said he has made significant progress since shortly after he began working out at NeuroXcel, a North Palm Beach training center for those who have suffered brain and spine injuries. NeuroXcel’s strength trainers painstakingly train clients to learn to walk again.
“I’ve been sweating a lot,” DeVlieger said.
DeVlieger pays $2,995 a month for strength training at NeuroXcel, where treatment isn’t covered by insurance. That sounds steep, but the training facility bills itself as a low-cost alternative for people recovering from paralysis. “We are the cheapest state-of-the-art activity-based strength training facility in the United States,” said Thomas Mullin, 46, NeuroXcel’s chief executive. Mullin learned just how expensive specialized training can be after his brother, Kevin Mullin, 32, was paralyzed in a swimming accident at a beach in Boca Raton. The Mullins went to live in Utah for several years so Kevin could train and get strength training at several clinic’s that charged in excess of $16,000 a month for various modalities and strength training.
The Mullins were impressed by the progress Kevin made. He regained the use of his arms, and some movement has returned to his legs. But Thomas Mullin felt uncomfortable with the reality that a middle-class family couldn’t afford the same treatment that the Mullins could.
“They love their kids as much as I love my brother,” Mullin said.
So Mullin opened NeuroXcel in 2009. He says the center has lured clients from around the world. Even so, Mullin acknowledges that NeuroXcel’s prices are a stretch for many. One client who was paralyzed in an auto accident pays for treatment with money from a legal settlement. DeVlieger said his former teammates and coach at Calvin College in Michigan have raised money to help pay for his training.
NeuroXcel cuts costs where it can. The training center occupies space on Northlake Boulevard; the landlord is a friend of Thomas Mullin’s. “We’re trying to get the cost down,” Mullin said. “I don’t want to make this a socioeconomic club.”
Mullin acknowledges that managing a training center for paralyzed clients isn’t cheap. NeuroXcel employs a staff of Strength Trainers, and a single machine that Mullin describes as Robocop-meets-treadmill which costs approximately $400,000. NeuroXcel isn’t profitable yet, Mullin said, but he’s already looking to open locations throughout the country. He points to clients like DeVlieger as proof that there’s demand for NeuroXcel’s services. “You wouldn’t stay in a program and pay this type of money if you weren’t getting results,” he said.
New Spinal Cord Injury treatments and New Stroke treatments that include activity-based strength training at Neuroxcel’s® C.A.S.T® program in South Florida offers clients the chance to regain as much strength and lost abilities as possible. Every day, more than 2 million Americans struggle with the debilitating effects of spinal cord injury (SCI), mobility impairment, stroke and paralysis. Most SCI individuals are in their teens and twenties. However, exciting new developments in Spinal Cord Injury Recovery, Stroke and other neurological disorders that include activity-based training, repetitive robotic and manual treadmill stepping, gait strengthening, weight bearing and conditioning are offering hope.