Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation to be featured on TLC’s American Chopper

Episode to unveil Orange County Choppers’ first-ever wheelchair-accessible motorcycle

SHORT HILLS, N.J., Dec. 29 /PRNewswire/ — The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation announced today that Paul Teutul Sr. and the crew from Orange County Choppers (OCC) have built a custom wheelchair-accessible motorcycle specifically to raise funds for the Reeve Foundation. A first of its kind, this trike bike allows someone living with paraplegia the opportunity to ride a motorcycle without having to transfer from their wheelchair.

The American Chopper episode featuring the Reeve Foundation/Life Rolls On bike is scheduled to air on TLC on Thursday, January 7 at 9PM ET/PT. Continue Reading »

Quadraplegic sailor in record bid

A BRITISH quadriplegic yachtsman left Spain’s Canary Islands in a specially designed boat last night in a bid to become the first disabled person to sail across the Atlantic.

Geoff Holt, 42, set off from the island of Lanzarote at 10am (9pm AEDT) in an 18-metre wheelchair-accessible catamaran, called Impossible Dream, his spokeswoman said. Continue Reading »

Remember to live

Parkite continues on after life-changing accident

When a skiing accident left professional skier and instructor Pelle Sederholm with a spinal-cord injury, he didn’t know if he’d ever walk again. Now, four years later, Sederholm is not only walking, he’s participating in today’s Summit Challenge 100-mile bike race.

When Sederholm woke from a 26-day coma four years ago, doctors told him he had broken his neck and suffered severe brain damage, and diagnosed him as an incomplete quadriplegic with limited mobility in his hands and legs. Continue Reading »

Safety Should Be the Goal for Football Players

Good coaching, right equipment can prevent serious head and neck injuries, doctors say

(HealthDay News) — Football fans and players may be excited about the start of the season, but everyone wins if players manage to avoid head injuries, experts say.

In 2008, only cycling caused more sports-related head injuries than football, according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. And football is the third-leading sports-related cause for spinal cord injuries, after diving and cycling. Continue Reading »

Athletes raise money for adaptive equipment

BURLINGTON — A team of disabled athletes using hand cycles will ride in the fourth annual Kelly Brush Century Ride on Sept. 12. Team Ride-On members aim to raise money for adaptive equipment so others like them get the chance to participate in sports.

“The Kelly Brush Century Ride is a perfect opportunity for us to give back to the disabled community and to highlight the value of sport for the disabled,” said Patrick Standen, president of the board of the Northeast Disabled Athletic Association and Team Ride-On leader. “One hand cycle can cost $5,000 or more, and, for many people, that becomes a barrier to participation.” Continue Reading »

Climbing Mountains

K. Eric Larson and a few pals had planned a mountain climbing trip to Mount Rainier when the idea hit him: turn the trip into a fundraiser for spinal-cord injuries and call it “Climb for a Cause.”

Larson, a graduate of Henry-Senachwine High School, had a public-relations business in the Chicago area with a niche in hospitals and health care. He’d also been volunteering for the National Spinal Cord Injury Association, that readily agreed to the fundraiser and accepted nearly $15,000 when he returned from Seattle.

“That climb had a lot of impact on me personally. It was the most physical thing I’d ever done,” Larson said. “I thought, ‘I want to do something more with this.’” Continue Reading »

Hope is a river

David Estrada lost the use of his legs, but not his will. Now, at Spaulding hospital, he and other paraplegics are learning to row, strengthening body and mind as they wait for a cure.

From his office in the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Andrew Taylor’s views sweep across the Charles River, where generations of rowers have raced. So maybe it makes sense that the pursuit of science would bring the researcher from his desk to the water’s edge, in what he recently described as “a beautiful convergence.’’

Taylor is amid a grand experiment. In his third-floor laboratory, he is replicating the workouts of avid oarsmen who pound away on indoor rowing machines inside boathouses along the river. But in Taylor’s lab, there’s a key difference: His rowers are paraplegics. Continue Reading »

What I should know about Physical Therapy?

Physiotherapy, also known as physical therapy, is a health related field that strives to enable individuals who were physically injured or whose bodies have degenerated due to aging or disease to function as much as they can without assistance. This often involves an interaction with the medical practitioner and patient that incorporates physical therapy equipment or training exercises for muscles that may have been harmed for a number of medical reasons. Continue Reading »

UAB to Host Consumer Conferences for People Spinal Cord Injury and People with Traumatic Brain Injury

On Saturday, August 29, 2009, people spinal cord injury, people with brain injury, and their families are invited to UAB to hear speakers discuss community resources and latest health topics. Eat lunch and meet with community representatives providing information on recreational activities, equipment, independent living services, current back-to-work incentives and more! Continue Reading »

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