While few caregivers would think twice about assisting a person with disabilities in the bathroom, many feel squeamish about advising or assisting that same person in the bedroom.

The sexuality of people with disabilities, many of whom require varying degrees of assistance to lead fulfilling sex lives, continues to be overlooked, avoided or even dismissed as a component of holistic care because of a longstanding stigma that shrouds disability and sex. A dearth of resources, training and infrastructure to guide caregivers and patients in addressing sexual needs contributes to the problem. Continue Reading »

A UM/Jackson neurosurgeon uses hypothermic treatment on 20-year-old gymnast with a spinal cord injury

MIAMI-DADE — A double flip gone wrong last week sent a 20-year-old Miami state champion gymnast to Jackson Memorial Hospital. Jorge Valdez had attempted the double flip at a gym near The Falls in South Miami-Dade while practicing for tryouts for a Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil production. During his routine, he landed squarely on his head.

The resulting spinal cord injury – bilateral dislocation of two vertebrae – led to near-complete motor and sensory failure, doctors said; Valdez had no movement in his legs or hands, and minimal arm movement. Initially, doctors were not sure if he would walk again, let alone return to gymnastics.

On Thursday, Valdez walked out of the hospital, ready to resume practice. Also remarkable, he won’t need rehabilitation, his doctors say. Continue Reading »

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Is One of Three Centers in Newly Released Landmark Study

Performing delicate surgery in the womb, months before birth, can substantially improve outcomes for children with a common, disabling birth defect of the spine. Experts at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) co-led a new landmark study showing that fetal surgery for spina bifida greatly reduces the need to divert fluid from the brain, improves mobility and improves the chances that a child will be able to walk independently.

Spina bifida is the most common birth defect of the central nervous system, affecting about 1,500 babies born each year in the United States. Continue Reading »

DOWNEY – The happy memories of a wonderful Christmas changed in an instant when four-year-old Katarina Milatovich and her family were involved in a horrific car accident on their way home from their holiday celebration.

Although her mom and brother were hurt, they soon recovered. But Katarina suffered an injury that would last a lifetime — a spinal cord injury that left her unable to walk.

“Imagine this happy, playful, wonderful girl who suddenly found herself in a wheelchair,” her mother Natasha says. “When she went to school she was different from the other kids. She felt like an outsider.” Continue Reading »

A quadriplegic Disneyland visitor is suing the parent company for failing to evacuate him from the broken “it’s a small world” ride, the lawsuit says, prompting dangerously high blood pressure.

Jose Martinez of San Pedro filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Monday, saying the Walt Disney Co. violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to have adequate evacuation procedures for visitors with mobility disabilities.

The suit has been moved to the federal court in Santa Ana, said Shawna Parks, Martinez’s attorney and legal director with the Disability Rights Legal Center. Continue Reading »

For the first time, researchers are using embryonic stem cells in a clinical trial to treat patients with spinal cord injuries. The trial strives to test whether these cells can be safely used to treat humans.

This initial investigation of embryonic stem cells stands apart from prior trials, which have all relied on adult stem cells. If successful, it may be expanded to larger clinical trials. Continue Reading »

While eyeglasses can be an inconvenience, they can be limiting for people like Dan Larsen, who has been paralyzed for 11 years.

Vanity, expense and convenience drive people to laser vision correction surgery. Necessity is what motivated Dan Larsen.

The 27-year-old Middletown man is paralyzed from the shoulders down. He has limited use of his arms, but no use of his hands or fingers. Continue Reading »

On Mother’s Day 2005, 24-year-old Joey Lowe of Boise, Idaho was in Iraq, buttoned up in a tank. Lowe, a U.S. Marine corporal, was the gunner on the crew of an M1-A1 Abrams in the Battle of Al Qaim, code-named Operation Matador.

On the first day of Operation Matador, Corporal Lowe’s life changed forever. Fighting to keep insurgents from crossing a bridge spanning the Euphrates River on the Syrian border, his tank rolled over a 600-pound bomb buried in the soil. The charge was remotely detonated. Continue Reading »

Cast for broken bone gets paralyzed woman different treatment

I remember seeing a movie years ago about a girl who is paralyzed but pretends to have a broken leg while on a skiing vacation so she can enjoy a respite from how she ordinarily is treated by society.

The movie’s underlying premise was that people treated her differently when they thought her wheelchair was a temporary fixture in her life instead of a permanent one. It wasn’t a particularly good movie (as evidenced by the fact that both the title and lead actress’ name escape me) but I recently was reminded of it when I saw a friend of mine, Shauna Petrie, a paraplegic since she was 16. Continue Reading »

Relay involving 7,000 Canadians chosen from 600 communities along the route will begin on 25th anniversary of historic trek

When an exhausted but triumphant Rick Hansen pushed himself into Vancouver on May 22, 1987, after circling the globe in a wheelchair for two years, the miles were all behind him but the journey was just beginning. Continue Reading »