A groundbreaking new nerve surgery is changing the lives of quadriplegic patients by allowing them to take part in activities that they never thought they’d be able to do again.

Paul Robinson was paralyzed from the chest down in a 2015 dirt bike accident. He landed on his head in the accident, which broke one of the vertebrae in his neck  and left him confined to a wheelchair. He was recently one of 16 people who took part in a medical trial at Austin Health in Melbourne that used nerve transfers to re-enervate paralyzed muscles in quadriplegic patients.

Another man taking part in the trial had been the CEO of three different companies before being paralyzed in a boating accident.

“He had decided that he would try this surgery, but if it didn’t work he was going to exit—he didn’t want to live any more,” said Dr. Natasha Van Zyl, the lead reconstructive surgeon.

The tendon and nerve transfers in the surgery were a huge success for him, and he was soon able to start working from home again. He could also take his family to the movies, handling money, getting the tickets, and buying the popcorn himself.

The surgery involves rerouting a functioning nerve and implanting it into a paralyzed muscle, essentially “plugging in” its signals to another functioning part of the spinal cord. While these types of nerve transfers have been performed since 1962, they haven’t gotten much attention until now, and Van Zyl said that her team was the first to use the technique for quadriplegic patients.

Her team performed a total of 59 nerve transfers on the 16 patients, with each participant receiving either a single or multiple nerve transfer in one or both upper limbs. Of the 13 who completed the trial, all experienced major improvements in their elbow extension and hand function.

“Prior to surgery, none of the participants were able to perform the grasp or pinch strength tests, but two years later, their pinch and grasp strength was sufficient to allow them to do most activities of daily living,” stated an article from Pursuit, at the University of Melbourne.

Before the surgery, Paul had no ability to use his hands at all. Now, he can maneuver his wheelchair, pick things up, and use a television remote with one hand while holding a glass with another.

“Before, I was confined to a wheelchair but I couldn’t push it unless I wore special gloves,” he said. “If I dropped something on the ground, I had to ask someone to pick it up. I couldn’t drive. To pick up a drink, I’d have to use two hands and squeeze them up.”