Diving accidents can cause lifelong injuries

Diving accidents can cause lifelong injuries

Members of our organization know all too well the dangers of diving into backyard pools or shallow water. Diving accidents can lead to permanent paralysis from the neck down. These injuries usually happen to individuals younger than 45.

The National Institutes of Health describes spinal cord injury paralysis as one of the most devastating injuries known to humans. Continue Reading »

Caracella’s wife feared worst

BLAKE Caracella’s wife has told of her relief that her husband had not suffered permanent spinal damage after his collision with Lion Tim Notting on Saturday night.

Jackie Caracella last night remained by her husband’s side at The Alfred Hospital.

It was confirmed yesterday the Magpies forward had suffered a fractured neck and heavy bruising of his spinal cord. Continue Reading »

FERTILITY, CHILDBIRTH, AND CONTRACEPTION

Women with Paraplegia or Quadriplegia and of childbearing age usually regain menses; nearly 50% do not miss a single period following injury. Pregnancy is possible, and if pelvic measurements are adequate, most spinal cord injured women can have normal vaginal deliveries.

A SCI woman may be subject to certain complications of pregnancy and should discuss these with her physician. Among potential complications are premature delivery in women in whom injury occurs during pregnancy and above the T-10 level and Autonomic Dysreflexia (high blood pressure, sweating, chills, and headache) during labor. The problem is also greater during pregnancy. Loss of sensation in the pelvic area can prevent the woman’s knowledge that labor has begun. With a low level injury, the woman can assist in childbirth. Continue Reading »

USA Diving accident survivor Brooke Burns helps raise awareness about diving injury prevention

It’s a startling fact that as many as 1,000 spinal cord injuries occur each year due to shallow water diving. With swimming pools officially opening nationwide this Memorial Day weekend, millions of American families need to “think first” before diving in for some summer fun. According to the ThinkFirst National Injury Prevention Foundation and the North American Spine Society, 90 percent of all diving injuries cause a spinal cord injury and result in paralysis, specifically quadriplegia. Well-known television and film actress, Brooke Burns, was in the lucky 10 percent and narrowly avoided paralysis after sustaining a diving injury last November. Burns misjudged depth while diving into her backyard swimming pool and hit the bottom, resulting in a broken neck – a near fatal injury. The 28-year-old actress and mother credits her friend, a paramedic fireman, for saving her life by immobilizing her and floating her in the pool until additional paramedics arrived. Burns underwent extensive surgery and since has made a full recovery. Continue Reading »

Castaic Paraplegic to Walk Marathon Finish

This morning, for the second year in a row, Castaic resident and Web site designer Marc Richards, paralyzed from the middle of his chest to the tips of his toes due to a freak medical accident in early 1998, will walk the last 400 feet across the finish line at the 21st Los Angeles Marathon.

Cheering him on will be his clinical exercise physiologist and trainer Taylor-Kevin Isaacs, wife Nancy, 11-year-old daughter Sami, 14-year-old son Jacob and a gang of friends from Castaic and the Santa Clarita Valley.
As he did last March, Richards will cross the finish line under his own power, wearing a specially designed brace for his hips and legs, a pair of forearm crutches, a slick-looking running outfit, sweat on his brow, and the determination of a champion. Continue Reading »

Pictures of hope

An exhibition of posters aims to challenge the perceptions of severe spinal cord injury and show that life is still worth living.

“I DIDN’T want to have heaps of wheelchairs in the photos,” says photographer Mark Chew of his current exhibition. “You are not pretending that they are not in the wheelchairs but I wanted to show that there is more to them than their injuries. That it wasn’t all doom and gloom.”

Chew, 41, was asked by the Austin Hospital to create a series of posters to show that spinal cord injury need not be the end of an active and interesting life. Continue Reading »

What is Paraplegia and Quadriplegia?

Paraplegia is the loss of sensation and movement in legs and in part or all of the trunk, usually resulting from an injury to the spinal cord below the neck.

Quadriplegia (also Tetraplegia) is paralysis of all four limbs (from the neck down) resulting from injury to the neck. Fractures or compression of the vertebrae, which cause permanent damage to the spinal cord may lead to loss of sensation, movement, pain management, bladder and bowel control, as well as affecting sexual function.

dreamblvr.com

This site shares a little about life, quadriplegia and insite to a wacky world. So have fun with it! Spinal cord injury can be devastating but it doesn’t mean an end to fun and being a part of the good things in life.

Explore stories from Sex and Dating to the Crazy Things Kids Say plus a little about life, quadriplegia and insight to paralysis.

What is meant by the terms “complete” and “incomplete” injuries?

Complete injuries result in total loss of sensation and function below the injury level. Incomplete injuries result in partial loss.

“Complete” does not necessarily mean the cord has been severed. Each of the above categories can occur in paraplegia and quadriplegia.

National Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Month

More than 240,000 Americans, including 44,000 veterans, currently suffer from a spinal cord injury (SCI). Eleven thousand more sustain these injuries every year. The Department of Veterans Affairs promotes National Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Month as a means to educate the public, aid those living with SCI, and support medical research in the SCI field.

VA has the single largest network of spinal cord injury care in the nation, with 23 specialized SCI centers and 135 SCI primary care teams or SCI support clinics at non-SCI VA medical centers. Continue Reading »