The system also uses patients’ daily achievement levels to generate a second virtual cycling character against which they can “compete” on subsequent days, thereby helping them to improve their performance gradually.
Intensive Care patient, Nick Richards, broke his neck a number of years ago. The accident resulted in him being a tetraplegic, meaning four limbs were affected. He is paralysed and unable to walk or grip anything with his hands. Nick was admitted to Torbay Hospital on 29 November 2017 with pneumonia, and developed severe breathing difficulties at home following a bad cold. Nick was intubated for a number of days before having a tracheostomy*. His condition was life threatening, and was exacerbated by his high level spinal cord injury. He is now being slowly rehabilitated and attempting to wean from the tracheostomy.
After using the VR device, Nick said: “This was so much better than I expected. I found it fun chasing my own tail, catching myself and passing my own ghost! It was a very good diversion from just peddling the bike which can be rather monotonous at times. The time flew by and instead of achieving the usual 5 minutes on the bike, I actually managed to cycle for at least 20 minutes!
“I enjoyed the terrain. I had a sense of leaning and tipping and going downhill. I love the beach and the scenery suited me very well - I could lose myself in this programme. I’m looking forward to using it again and seeing how it develops.”
Nick’s wife, Sandra Richards, noticed a difference in Nick’s attitude straight away: “At the time of taking part Nick had been in the intensive care unit for a long nine weeks and his discharge is not imminent. So it was wonderful to see Nick taking part. He clearly enjoyed himself and was happy to feed back to Bob and his team whilst cycling. There’s no doubt that this helped his mood and the fact that he was able to cycle further than he expected left him feeling optimistic about his potential and his future. A super experience and we both believe this has an important part to play in Nick’s rehabilitation and those with similar conditions.”
Nick Peres, Lead for Learning Technologies Research and Development at TSDFT, said: “VR intervention for us is all about making patients feel more comfortable and human again. Virtual reality has serious potential as a platform for how we can approach care, comfort and treatment of our patients. We have been using VR at Torbay for the past three years with great success, to show our staff the patient’s perspective, helping us realise the importance of empathy and humanistic skills between clinician and patient interaction. In Nick's case, he was able to cycle around the locations which he dearly loves. This is what I love most about virtual reality.”