Spinal cord injury prevention tips

Always wear a seat belt. Secure or buckle children into age- and weight-appropriate child safety seats.

Do not ride in a car with a driver who is impaired by alcohol or drugs.

Always wear a helmet when riding a bike, motorcycle, scooter or skateboard, in-line skating and roller-skating and horseback riding.

Make sure the water is deep enough before you go in headfirst. Entering feet first is safer than diving. Continue Reading »

A ‘Miracle’ In Tennessee

A ‘Miracle’ In Tennessee: Charlene Caswell Transforms Herself From Quadriplegic to Hiker, With Help from The Hartford

Walking away from a seemingly permanent Disability requires tenacity, excellent care and a talented, committed insurance team

HARTFORD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Charlene Caswell’s life changed abruptly on a snowy day last February after the truck in which she was riding flipped over, fracturing her Cervical spine and injuring her spinal cord. Continue Reading »

ThinkFirst Foundation

Each year an estimated 500,000 persons sustain brain and spinal cordinjuries in the United States. The most frequent causes of theseinjuries are motor vehicle crashes, falls, sports and recreation,especially diving, and violence. Children and teens are at high-riskfor these devastating injuries, many of which are preventable.ThinkFirst, the National Injury Prevention Programs award-winningpublic education efforts target this high-risk age group.

Ask Patty Supports United Spinal Association With Online Fundraiser

AskPatty.com, Inc. is supporting United Spinal Association in an online holiday fundraiser during the month of December.

New York, NY (PRWeb) December 14, 2006 – AskPatty.com, Inc. announced today they will be supporting United Spinal Association in an online-based holiday fundraising effort during the month of December. The mission of United Spinal is to provide expertise, create access to resources and strengthen hope, thereby enabling people with spinal cord injuries and disorders (SCI/D) to fulfill their potential as active members of their communities.

Ask Patty has made a yearlong commitment to support United Spinal Association through donations, publicity, and partnerships. United Spinal not only supports people with spinal cord injuries and disorders in their everyday lives, but also created a Motorsports program: Living Life in Motion. Continue Reading »

ThinkFirst speaker has firsthand story Crash victim shares his bad decision to drink and drive

Cardington man hopes message helps others

CARDINGTON – Jeff Radel is reminded on a daily basis what drinking and driving did to his life.

The 26-year-old Cardington man lives with double vision in one eye, numbness in two of his fingers and slurred speech as a result of a brain injury – the consequence of a bad decision he made nearly two years ago.

Radel hopes that his story will inspire others to think before having that drink and climbing behind the wheel this holiday season.
“It’s better I tell others what I went through. Learn from my mistake before someone else gets hurt,” said Radel who now works as a Voice for Injury Prevention speaker for the Central Ohio chapter of ThinkFirst, an international prevention program that focuses on brain and spinal injuries. Continue Reading »

Out of harm’s way

Teens learned a vital lesson during Spinal Cord Inury Awareness Week.

The idea was to educate teens about the dangers of accidents that can lead to paralyzing injuries.

Message received, said Western High School student Ali Bruns.

”People get in rushes and they don’t put seat belts on,” the 16-year-old Davie girl said. “When I am around people, I will definitely make sure they are wearing their seat belt.” Continue Reading »

Paralyzed racer from Weston starts foundation to lend support, help find cure

On top of his sport, and with a weekend off from competitive drag racing, Darrell Gwynn went to England for an exhibition in 1990 to rocket his Top Fuel dragster down a track at 240 mph.

In the blink of an eye, Gwynn, 45, smashed into a concrete wall and was left a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the chest down and with his left arm lost at the elbow. Gwynn, who lives in Weston, has used his personal tragedy to start a foundation to support individuals living with paralysis and to underwrite research to cure paralysis.

“I am looking to save kids who have their whole life in front of them from tragedy,” Gwynn said. Continue Reading »

Florida Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Week

Darrell Gwynn Foundation Spearheads Florida Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Week to Educate the Community

November 13 – 19 – First-ever week aimed at paralysis prevention, promoting safety, knowledge and understanding to reduce injuries and accidents

Ft. Lauderdale, FL: The Darrell Gwynn Foundation (DGF) – a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing paralysis when possible, providing support for individual’s living with paralysis and ultimately finding a cure for paralysis – is capitalizing on the first Florida Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Week as a focal point for educating the Florida community to the dangers of accidents that can lead to paralysis. Continue Reading »

Still playing to win

Eyes, not hands, now guide the work of wheelchair-bound vascular surgeon in Greenville

GREENVILLE — Glancing at a U.S. Open doubles tennis match on a big-screen TV in his ranch house, Dr. Bruce Fellows’ eyes sometimes dart back and forth between the bouncing, fuzzy green ball and the players’ quick-footed steps.

Martina Navratilova makes a winning point, but there is no “yeah, baby” clenched fist from Fellows. Continue Reading »

Union players face quadriplegic threat

Rugby union players are four times more likely to wind up as quadriplegics than their rugby league counterparts, new research shows.

A study by Adelaide’s Flinders University Research Centre for Injury Studies analysed severe spinal cord injuries among players of both codes in NSW between 1986 and 2005.

Researchers found 61 cases of Quadriplegia as a result of catastrophic neck injuries – 36 from union and 25 from league. Continue Reading »