Nat Little gently wraps his arms around Tamela Johnston and squeezes with all the strength he can muster.

“Good,” the personal trainer tells him. “It’s getting stronger.”

A simple hug is a big step for the former Carrollton R.L. Turner High School football player, who was paralyzed from the neck down in a spring football game 1 ½ years ago.

Thanks to the help of strangers, friends and family, Nat is on the road to recovery – one small step at a time. Continue Reading »

ISLAMABAD: Tiny nerves taken from the rib cage, fortified with a powerful growth inducer and transplanted in the spinal cord significantly reversed paralysis in rats with spinal cord injuries.

That’s the finding of a study in the October issue of the Journal of Neurotrauma.

The study shows that nerve cells can be inserted and stimulated to grow in damaged areas of the spinal cord, and the discovery may lead to improved treatments for people with spinal cord injuries. Continue Reading »

Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation

The Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation helps individuals overcome spinal cord injuries and other neurological disorders by funding scientific research, medical treatment, rehabilitation and technological advances. The Foundation also raises funds to improve quality of life issues and ensure the best possible outcomes by touching individual lives. (The Foundation is a 501 c 3 organization.)

We Love You Kari

Moments later, everything changed. A pickup stopped suddenly in front of the couple on the two-lane highway. Guzman, who was driving, swerved off the road to avoid hitting the truck. The convertible flipped over in a ditch and landed upside down. The windshield collapsed onto the couple and both had to be pried from the wreckage. Guzman suffered only minor injuries, but his wife could not move.

In recent years, a variety of aggressive physical Rehabilitation programs have emerged that seem to restore significant function for many people after spinal cord injury (SCI), even years after injury. This article discusses several of the programs, as well as key issues surrounding their use. Continue Reading »

DETROIT — If you were looking for the most meaningful story of Super Bowl week, it wasn’t at the NFL’s annual Media Day extravaganza yesterday, where thousands of reporters gathered to question the Seahawks and Steelers.

The best story was a mile away, where one of the most inspirational players to ever put on a helmet sat in a wheelchair at the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan. Continue Reading »

Therapy could help restore some function, some studies suggest

Vibrating tingles of electricity worm into the thin legs of paralyzed children, pulling at their muscles to pump up and down on a special bicycle.

It’s called electrical stimulation exercise therapy, and small but tantalizing studies suggest that this intense rehab just might help restore some function to people with spinal cord injuries, even if they were paralyzed long ago. Continue Reading »

Nintendo has been in the technology spotlight since announcing plans for a video-game controller that can be used with only one hand.

But a disabled fan in Southern California took notice for more reasons than just the excitement about the next generation of interactive entertainment.

To Travis Taft, 19, the controller was a stunning godsend in his fight against an injury that left him a quadriplegic. He has tried to call national attention to the unintended benefits that the gadget will offer for people with a variety of physical disabilities. Continue Reading »

A homecoming for a young tornado victim.

Thirteen-year-old William Pfingston suffers from a paralyzing spinal cord injury when a twister tore through the Eastbrook mobile home park.

After months of treatment at an Indianapolis hospital, William is now back home in Evansville.

It’s been an exhausting few months for the Pfingston family. William’s battle to recover has taken an emotional toll. Continue Reading »

The final of four FANtasy bike winners is revealed as the guys head to California. After a car accident left this fan a paraplegic, OCC faces the challenge of creating a trike.JAN 30 2006 @ 10:00 PMJAN 31 2006 @ 02:00 AMFEB 28 2006 @ 10:00 AMOn The Discovery Channel Continue Reading »