Robotic arm helped ex-Beaver Township police officer Tracy Pollack regain mobility after stroke

Youngstown, Ohio (WKBN) – May is Stroke Awareness Month The former police officer is now on the move after struggling with the disease. She appreciates the help of her robotic arm.

Tracy Pollack, a former Lieutenant of the Beaver Township Police Department, changed her life in an instant in 2021. She spent a weekend in a farm camp in September and was at work the next morning.

“I set my alarm after 5:00 and at 4:00 a dog jumped on me and hit me and tried to get me up so I couldn’t move,” she said.

Pollack suffered a stroke that paralyzed his entire left side of his body. But now, with the help of his InMotion robot arm, Mr. Pollack has regained nearly all of his movement from a state in which his arms and fingers were almost immobile.

She attends St Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital as a rehabilitation ward patient and uses a robotic arm to regain her mobility. Occupational therapist Lenny Swabel says it helps her as a tool to assess her movements.

“All of these measures must be able to be performed to develop daily living skills. Then, based on those results, a treatment plan is developed in conjunction with other occupational therapy tools and modalities. and improve patient independence,” said Swabel.

Pollack, who has now regained considerable athletic ability and cannot return to the police force, has begun training a new traveling dog with his sister.

“It’s all done with the left hand, so it’s even more therapeutic for me because the stroke was on the left side,” Pollak said.