LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — At 10 years old, Harper Borders has dealt with Joubert Syndrome her whole life, leading to developmental delays, mobility issues, and blindness. Harper goes to Marshall Pediatric Therapy to see Chloe Isaacs, who had an idea to get Harper a posterior walker.
"I had had this idea for a long time for Harper just to give her some type of independence,” Isaacs said. “With the use of her sight cane, it made it really hard for her to use any type of walker, but she really needed that stability, too. There was nothing out there on the market, like I searched and I searched. Nothing came up.”
Chloe heard about a nonprofit in Cincinnati called "May We Help You". This group enlisted a local robotics team from Ross High School to build the kind of walker Harper needed.
“The students just took off with the idea and created, well, they put together, kind of built their own walker,” Harper’s mother, Sarah Borders, said. “They put sensors on the walker that can detect objects two feet in front of Harper when she's using the walker.”
“They started this project in June,” Isaacs said. “And right before Christmas, we got the phone call that it was ready, and everybody was so excited; it was like a little Christmas miracle.”
A few of the students traveled down to Lexington on January 8 to deliver the walker to Harper. The walker uses the sensors and vibrates when an object stands in the way of Harper, so she can maneuver around whatever lies in front of her.
“It was all that we could do not to cry and just hold back tears,” Isaacs said. “I mean, it was a dream come true; I have searched and searched, trying to find something like this out there. To hear that the boys were just so passionate about it too, I think, also helped the project come to life because when you throw that passion and that love in the air, it's just different.”
“It really means so much to me as a parent,” Borders said, “that these students had the heart to create this walker and make adjustments to it and modify it so that it could be so useful to my daughter, to give her independence at school.”
Since Harper started using the walker, her mom has heard from Harper’s teachers about how much fun Harper is having learning to use her new walker. Isaacs also noticed an increase in Harper’s confidence and independence.
“We used it yesterday during her session,” Isaacs said. “And she walked through this clinic better than she ever had. I felt like I was more of a hindrance to her because I was in the way, and she had a mission she was going to go and she did not need me there.”
Harper has been seeing Isaacs for two years, and according to her mom, Harper only needed five minutes to get acquainted with her new tool.
