From the Canadian Jewish News
May 18 marked Jacob Trossman’s leap into manhood, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.
Surrounded by 120 family members and close friends, all of whom have been touched by Jacob in some way, the young man celebrated what is believed to be the first ever bar mitzvah ceremony at the Hospital for Sick Children.
Until recently, Jacob used an iPod to communicate, which opened a whole world for him. It was programmed with several main categories and sub-categories that Jacob could activate with just a slight movement of his head.
However, Jacob can no longer move, so a new communication device, called a Blink Switch, was designed just for him.
“When it came time for Jacob to do the brachot before and after the Torah portion, I took his hand with the tallis to touch the Torah. At that point, Jacob would blink his eyes to activate a computer to recite the brachot,” said his mother, Marcy White.
He had help with the actual Torah reading from a special friend, Hannah Sandler, who recently celebrated her own bat mitzvah and wanted her bat mitzvah project to relate to Jacob.
“My very close friend Jacob was born with Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease and is not able to communicate – at least, not with words,” Hannah said. “After my bat mitzvah, I learned Jacob’s portion and recorded it for him so he would be able to read from the Torah through my voice using a computer device.”
Dr. Tom Chau, senior scientist and vice-president of research at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, elaborated on the workings of the Blink Switch: “The device that Jacob is using is based on the measurement of electrical activity of the muscles in the forehead area. When Jacob blinks, he needs to activate his eye muscles. The muscles are controlled by electrical impulses,” he said.
“A headband sits on Jake’s forehead, and that’s the part that captures the electrical impulses of his muscles. When he blinks, it’s detected by the device, and it communicates to a computer via Bluetooth. When the computer receives that signal from the device, it activates the recorded speech. In this case, it was the blessings for his bar mitzvah.”
