Escaping quadriplegia: tackling life step by step

MORNINGTON’S Irwin Vale was told by doctors he would live the rest of his life as a quadriplegic, unable to move his body as a result of a scooter accident three years ago.

But he has proved them wrong. Thanks to his parents’ support, hard work and an alternative exercise therapy, Mr Vale is walking, with the assistance of crutches, and wants to help others do the same.

Mr Vale has held a commercial pilot’s licence since age 16 and, at age 19 moved to Fiji to work as an instructor. 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 »

Lives changed forever

IT is Spinal Injuries Awareness Week. For Mackay’s Luke Simmons and his family, sending out the message of how a spinal cord injury can change a life forever is deeply personal.

Luke and his brother Scott were born five years and two months apart. They grew up camping, building bonfires and working as pastry chefs in their parents’ bakery.

Coincidentally, both their lives took a dramatic turn when they each reached the age of 23 and sustained spinal cord injuries – Scott, after a motorbike accident in 1998, and Luke, after falling into a pool at a party in 2003. Continue Reading »

Spinal Injuries Awareness Week

Meet Martin Hume. Almost three years ago the 21-year-old from Elanora on the Gold Coast suffered major spinal injuries after a wakeboarding accident only two days after finishing year 12.

This week is Spinal Injuries Awareness Week, an important time of the year for the Spinal Injuries Association whose aim is to enhance the lives of people with spinal cord injury.

Martin Hume is a volunteer speaker for the association, visiting schools and talking to students in the hope his story can make a difference.

Martin sustained his injury in a wakeboarding accident only two days after he graduated from year 12, leaving him with quadriplegia. 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 »

‘Murderball’ gives new life to wheelchair-bound athlete

PHILADELPHIA, PA (NBC) – The Philadelphia Eagles wheelchair rugby team gives life back to its members and smashes stereotypes one hit at a time.

A.J. Nanayakkara lost his “able-bodied” life with one bad fall when he was a martial arts instructor 16 years ago. The spinal cord injury left him with quadriplegia, in a wheelchair and in a deep depression for the next eight years. Continue Reading »

Nosing Your Way Around

Reasearchers in Israel have developed an electronic controller that allows severely disabled people to control their wheelchairs or computers with a simple sniff of the nose.

Injury or disease can leave people paralyzed virtually from the neck down, often without any impairment of their mental capabilities. This new technology uses a hypersensitive device that allows severely disabled people to communicate and move about, using their nose. Continue Reading »

Spinal Cord Injuries Create Long Term Health Issues

Major accidents usually result in severe injuries sustained by one or more persons. Among these injuries, however, injuries to the spine is the worst to be suffered by those involved in the accident. Usually, this type of injury results to paraplegia, which is the inability to move the lower portion of the body, or quadriplegia, which is the total loss of movement in all parts of the body. While it is true there are some victims of spinal cord injury that seemed to recover after a year of rehabilitation, they are still susceptible to long-term health issues which may beleaguer them without end. Continue Reading »

Nina Foundation Celebrated 2nd Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Day

This is an event celebrated by a mumbai based NGO -Nina Foundation to spread awareness about spinal injury – prevention & Rehabilitation.

25th June 2010, Mumbai: Nina Foundation celebrated the 2nd spinal cord injury (SCI) awareness day on Friday, 25th June 2010 at the WE School, Matunga, Mumbai from 4:30pm onwards. The academic partner of the foundation, WE School or the Welingkar institute of management development and research, matunga, hosted the event from 4:30pm onwards. Continue Reading »

University of Louisville, Kentucky centers develop treatments, create hope for spinal cord injuries

A bullet remains lodged in Michelle Alexander’s spinal cord nearly six years after her husband shot her four times — instantly paralyzing her — before killing himself in July 2004.

Doctors told her she’d probably never walk again. But a rehabilitation strategy being pioneered at the University of Louisville is changing her fate.

Today Alexander uses a walker to get around, takes tentative steps with two canes and gets on a specially designed treadmill four days a week as part of a research study evaluating Locomotor training, which UofL’s Susan Harkema helped develop to teach lost skills to broken nervous systems.

It’s one of several areas of spinal cord research at UofL and the University of Kentucky, home to two of about 10 large centers for such work in the nation. Continue Reading »