Special care requires out-of-town trip

Tony Nickolite was 26 when his life changed forever.

The Sylvania Township man was living on his own in Nebraska, going to school, working, and helping raise a young daughter when he was thrown out of his vehicle during a rollover crash. The impact left him paralyzed from the waist down.

Three years later, he has moved in with his parents and spends most of his time in a wheelchair. What he finds he needs most, he said, is someone to understand and a place to give him hope. Continue Reading »

Christian Maynard was just being a kid, a normal teenager having a good time, when it happened. In a flash. So fast he didn’t know what hit him.

He was riding a motorcycle, towing a dune buggy loaded with friends, when he hit some gravel and flipped. The dune buggy ran right over him, breaking vertebrae in his neck and back.

He couldn’t move. Friends called for help. Ten days later he was at the Shepherd Center, a rehabilitation hospital in Atlanta. Continue Reading »

CAPALABA’S Patrick Dillon knows that a split second is all it takes to change your life.

A diving accident five years ago resulted in quadriplegia.

Ahead of Spinal Injuries Awareness Week (November 11-17), Patrick is sharing his experience of what having a permanent physical disability is like, with the aim of both preventing injuries and raising awareness about spinal cord injuries in the community. Continue Reading »

Medical experts advise spinal injury victims not to pin hopes on this therapy as it is ‘not yet fully researched’, say doctors performing this treatment should not charge patients

In the recently-concluded Maharashtra Orthopedic Association Conference (MOACON) —an annual meet attended by more than 1,200 surgeons, professors and students from across the state — the efficacy of stem cell therapy to treat spinal paraplegia was widely discussed and debated, only to reach the conclusion that not only is the widely-touted treatment still just in the research phase, but that doctors experimenting with it should not be charging patients exorbitant fees. Continue Reading »

A NEW method of treating spinal cord injuries with the potential to reduce paralysis in patients has been developed by scientists in Scotland.

Researchers at Glasgow University and colleagues at the University of Liverpool believe the work could help develop treatments by using the body’s own natural resources.

They were able to envisage the innovative treatments by studying sugar produced in the body. Continue Reading »

PETALING JAYA – Businessman Danny Goh Teck Chuan’s heart broke when he came across a few paralysed dogs after he started rescuing animals about a year ago.

Getting help for these dogs was hard, he said.

For instance, wheelchairs and walkers for the paralysed dogs had to be ordered from abroad.

The contraptions were also expensive, easily costing RM1,000 (S$400) each. Continue Reading »

Here’s hope for those suffering from spinal cord injuries and neurological disorders- researchers have found a way to make injured nerve cells regenerate.

A team led by Melissa Rolls, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State University, has found that a mutation in a single gene can entirely shut down the process by which axons- parts of the nerve cell that send signals to other cells – regrow themselves after being cut or damaged.

“We are hopeful this discovery will open the door to new research related to spinal-cord and other neurological disorders in humans,” said Rolls, according to the journal Cell. Continue Reading »

A beach accident prompts a Fort Lauderdale mother and son to create Walking With Anthony, a non-profit that raises money to help spinal cord injury victims.

Anthony Purcell’s voice grows strained when he speaks about that February 2010 day that changed his life. Back in Florida visiting cousins, he dove into the water off South Beach and crashed into a sandbar.

“I thought I was going to die,” he recalls.

He didn’t. A cousin rescued him, but he was left paralyzed, with a broken neck and two bruised vertebrae. Continue Reading »

The dream of regaining the ability to stand up and walk has come closer to reality for people paralyzed below the waist who thought they would never take another step.

A team of engineers at Vanderbilt University’s Center for Intelligent Mechatronics has developed a powered exoskeleton that enables people with severe spinal cord injuries to stand, walk, sit and climb stairs. Its light weight, compact size and modular design promise to provide users with an unprecedented degree of independence. Continue Reading »

Incurring a spinal injury when you’re young is surely difficult enough without having to convalesce in a home for older people

Linda Liebenberg did not expect to be in a home for older people at the age of 32. Nonetheless she spent 20 months living in one after being discharged from hospital, following treatment for a broken neck that had left her paralysed.

New research from the spinal injury charity, Aspire, suggests that one in five people with spinal injuries are likely to be discharged into residential or nursing homes for older people because of a lack of appropriate housing options. Continue Reading »