“You’ve heard the saying, ‘I’m going to break my neck trying?’ Well, that’s pretty much me.”

Hard hits, 99 mph fastballs and errant pucks don’t kill players in the four major pro leagues, but they can change players’ lives. Just ask Reggie Brown.

Reggie Brown still watches football. He roots for Texas A&M and the Detroit Lions as well as Tyler Junior College, where his brother, Michael Johnson, is an all-conference strong safety. Continue Reading »

While shooting footage last fall for the film adaptation of “Friday Night Lights,” the quintessential novel about Texas high school football and the young men who play it, director Peter Berg witnessed something he would never forget.

Filming a game between West Lake High School and San Antonio Madison in Austin, Berg, along with a stadium full of fans, watched as David Edwards collapsed on the turf following a hard hit. Continue Reading »

Activist and former actor Christopher Reeve speaks to a packed audience at Irvine Auditorium last night. He advised students to follow their morals.

Bringing audience members to tears last night, acclaimed actor and activist Christopher Reeve urged a sold-out Irvine Auditorium to strive to change the world. Continue Reading »

Recent research suggests that, throughout life, the adult brain retains a limited capacity to make new neurons. This new knowledge has led to a surge of interest in adult stem cells found in the brain. Two specific areas in the brain are known to generate new neurons. By studying stem cells in these areas, investigators like The Miami Project’s Daniel Liebl, Ph.D. hope to identify how neurogenesis – the formation of new neurons – is regulated in the adult nervous system. Continue Reading »

Miami Project scientists’ Mark S. Nash, Ph.D. and Edelle Field-Fote, Ph.D., PT were recently awarded funding as part of a multi-center grant from the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research to the National Rehabilitation Hospital, Washington, D.C. Dr. Nash will be conducting a three-year study to more clearly identify predictors of risk for diseases of the heart and circulation in people with SCI. Continue Reading »

Jonathan Dehaas doesn’t remember the motorcycle accident that robbed him of the use of his legs.

The first time he opened his eyes after the crash, he recalls white drapes pulled along each side of his bed, a nurses station across the hall and tubes coming out of every part of his broken body. Continue Reading »

When 40-year-old Mindy Idaspe learned she would never walk again due to a spinal cord injury in 2002, she was heartbroken. A nurse and mother, she had always focused on caring for others – how could she learn to be dependent on other people?

The answer came through the Spinal Cord Group of Collier County, a support group Idaspe formed with two other disabled friends. Continue Reading »

The transfer of the acute spinal cord injury unit from Conradie Hospital to Groote Schuur promises better service delivery to both patients and staff.

Western Cape Health MEC Meyer said this yesterday, during the official opening of the new unit at Groote Schuur Hospital. Continue Reading »

SEATTLE – (KRT) – Whoever learns to control embryonic stem cells that can morph into healthy human cells could be standing on a gold mine: Four million Americans have damaged brain cells from Alzheimer’s, and a million people each year suffer tissue damage from heart attacks. Continue Reading »

Associated Press – Information from: Houston Chronicle

FRIENDSWOOD, Texas – A motorist injured after a crash lay paralyzed in the middle of the Gulf Freeway with a broken neck for 36 hours before he was rescued.

Ed Theisen’s plight was blocked from the view of passing cars by some traffic barricades. Continue Reading »