Bad choices can change lives forever

In April 2007, Amanda left a prom after-party with a friend who had been drinking.

On the way home, the driver crashed into a ditch. Amanda’s spinal cord was injured, and she was paralyzed from the neck down.

She was hospitalized for five months and went through a grueling regimen of physical therapy each day. Amanda had to relearn how to feed herself, brush her teeth, get dressed and do many other simple, everyday tasks. She was told she would never walk again. Six years later Amanda is still in a wheelchair. Continue Reading »

Spinal Injury Cures: Balancing Hope And Expectation

Reports of paralysed animals walking again can give unrealistic hopes to people with spinal injuries. What is more important is that they develop the skills and perspective to get on with their lives

A recent breakthrough in regenerative medicine saw paraplegic dogs regaining some function in their back legs: inevitably, the headlines talked of hope for human patients with spinal cord injury.

But the head of clinical psychology at the National Spinal Injuries Centre, Professor Paul Kennedy, argues that this kind of “magic bullet” reporting can be damaging to people who are coming to terms with a life-changing injury. Continue Reading »

Doctors seek new subjects after first successful cell transplant

After decades of research, The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis has completed its first human cell transplant for a spinal cord injury.

Doctors grew what are called Schwann cells from nerve tissue taken from an unidentified man’s leg, then transplanted them back into his own body. The patient now has passed the critical 30-day, post-operation period without complications, giving researchers hope that they’re headed toward curing paralysis and developing treatments for neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Continue Reading »

Amazing hypothermia protocol cures gymnast’s spinal cord injury

A relatively new treatment protocol is providing nearly miraculous results for some victims of spinal cord injuries, reports the Miami Herald. In the case of one 20-year-old gymnast from Florida, hypothermic treatment before surgery appears to have prevented profound paralysis and put him back on his feet just days after the accident.

The young gymnast, a state champion, was practicing for an audition with the Cirque de Soleil when a double flip went badly wrong. He missed and landed squarely on his head. Continue Reading »

Rick Hansen set to re-enact his Man in Motion journey

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 »

Quadriplegic donkey walks again Stem cells aid recovery from spinal-cord injury

Eli the donkey’s recovery from incomplete quadriplegia could be the most important breakthrough in traumatic spinal-cord injuries and for the stem-cell treatment that restored his mobility—a breakthrough that could impact not only equids but all mammals, including humans.

Quadriplegia is considered incomplete if there is lack of mobility yet some sensory or motor function below the affected area.

On May 13, little Eli was inexplicably savaged by his longtime companion Watson, a jack nearly twice his size. Continue Reading »

Promise of stem cells fulfilled

clinical trial in Atlanta, Georgia, is proof that informed public debate is the key to medical advance

IF I’m honest, my first reaction to recent reports that the first human embryonic stem cell trial had begun on spinal patients in Atlanta was one of nonchalance.

Not because of its potential significance to those of us with spinal injuries — desperate for any news of progress — but because of the stop-start nature of the trial, plagued as it has been by legislative and regulatory restraints. Continue Reading »

What research brings spinal cord-injured patients closer to a cure?

Millions of people worldwide experience spinal cord injuries. Breakthroughs bring researchers progress, but a complete cure is a long way off

Spinal cord repair focuses on finding ways to make axons regrow and connect properly, replace damaged neurons, protect surviving neurons from further injury and retrain neural circuits to repair body functions. Continue Reading »

Spinal Cord Injury Victim and Role Model Brings Essential Treatment Options to the Bay Area

SCI-FIT ((Spinal Cord Injury Functional Integrated Therapy) is open for business in its new location. SCI-FIT is Northern California’s only facility that provides comprehensive, post-traditional, exercise based therapy for individuals who have suffered a debilitating injury. SCI-FIT is a philanthropic endeavor and even offered Chris Rodriguez – the young boy paralyzed by a stray bullet at his piano lesson in Oakland – almost one year of free training. Today Chris is walking with leg braces. Continue Reading »

Desperate search for spinal cord injury cure

Imagine the plight of a young person, the sole bread-earner in the family, getting paralysed below the neck as a result of a road accident, with no movement or sensation in all four limbs and no control over his bowel and bladder. This poses a big physical, psychological and economic challenge not only for the individual but also for the whole family. Continue Reading »