14 DAY TRIAL // An U.S. hospital uses Wii consoles to help patients recover from strokes or other serious conditions. The hospital has been using the Nintendo Wii for four months now, in their quest to help patients build balance, coordination, endurance, or upper and lower body strength..
The Ohio State University Medical Center's Dodd Hall Rehabilitation Hospital in Columbus is the place we are talking about, and it has a problem right now - due to the shortage of Nintedo Wii consoles, they can no longer install more of them. Robbie Winget, the occupational therapist responsible for the introduction of Wii consoles in the hospital, told Reuters he added it to Dodd Hall's regime after hearing that a rehab hospital in Canada was already using the console for the same purposes. Patients also use the device to find information on its news or weather channels, in addition to improving brain functions.
Despite the medical benefits found by Doctor Winget when using the Wii at a friend's house, he has been unable to bring more into the hospital, and Nintendo has not provided the center with one. And the shortage on the market isn't helping at all.
"I thought it was cool that you used your body to control the movement," said Winget and added that "The idea of sitting there fiddling a couple of buttons on a video game (controller) is not motivating or interesting at all."
Actually, this is not the first time when the Wii is used like this - The Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital was the first in North America to use Nintendo's technology to treat patients with movement and balance issues. It seems that patients progress quite well if such an interesting form of treatment is applied, being able to stand and play in front of a TV screen even though not long ago they were in wheelchairs, unable to bend or pick up things from the floor.