NFL Resumes Funding of the Miami Project

NFL Hands Grant to Miami Project, Which Helped Bills’ Kevin Everett Recover From Spinal Injury

The NFL has awarded a $113,000 grant to the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, which played a role in Bills tight end Kevin Everett’s recovery from a serious spinal cord injury.

The Miami Project, the world’s largest spinal cord injury research center, will use the grant money to further its cutting-edge research into hypothermic therapy, spokesman Scott Roy said Tuesday. Roy added the Miami Project will continue applying for further league grants. Continue Reading »

Corzine right on stem-cell pursuit

If the negative vote on stem-cell research was because of a reluctance to spend more taxpayer dollars, it was most unfortunate. I commend Gov. Corzine for promoting this research despite the vote, because doing so will result in better health care for all of us.

Readers who watched the PBS program “Innovation,” which documented advances in health care already taking place using stem cells, learned spinal cord injuries are being treated in Lisbon, Portugal, using stem cells isolated from the person’s nasal septum. Several patients have improved feeling and mobility.

In Germany, a person who had suffered a heart attack was healed using stem cells isolated from his bone marrow. Continue Reading »

Stem cell breakthrough could avoid ethical concerns

Advocates on both sides of the ethically charged debate over human embryonic stem cells hailed two breakthrough studies unveiled Tuesday that suggested simple human skin cells might one day lead to a vast array of new treatments without destroying embryos.

Until now, researchers hoping to use stem cells to create replacement organs and medicines for numerous diseases had assumed their best hope was with human embryonic stem cells, which have the flexibility to turn into any tissue type.

But the studies published in the journals, Cell and Science indicate that other cells plucked from a person’s hand or face may be just as useful. Continue Reading »

Everett’s injury inspires lesson in caring

LOCKPORT — While most children may be thinking about tricks or treats this month, many Emmet Belknap Middle School pupils have been preoccupied with the serious spinal cord injury suffered last month by Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett.

The school’s sixth-, seventh- and eighthgraders and their teachers are so concerned about the severity of the injury Everett suffered in the Bills season opener against the Denver Broncos that they’ve been raising money to donate for spinal cord research in Everett’s honor.

As of last Friday, Student Council President Dominique C. Wroten, a 12-year-old eighth-grader, said her school — students and teachers — had collected about $300 for the cause during the month of October. The campaign is slated to end today. Continue Reading »

When the Connections No Longer Work – Nerve Regeneration – Prestigious $4.8 Million Grant Advances Neuroscience Research at Wright State University

DAYTON, Ohio, Oct. 24 (AScribe Newswire) — Wright State University announced today that is has received a prestigious Program Project Grant (PPG) from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). The $4.8 million grant is the first Program Project Grant Wright State University has received. Five university scientists will use the grant to further their research into why full recovery is not always achieved after damaged nerves have regenerated.

“These grants are extremely competitive, and this award underscores the high caliber of neuroscience research being conducted at Wright State,” said David R. Hopkins, president of Wright State. “In this research arena we are successfully competing at a national level. We are extremely proud that Wright State has taken a leadership role by bringing this Program Project Grant to the region.” Continue Reading »

University of Pittsburgh Awarded $4.75 Million Grant to Improve Treatment of Spinal Cord Injuries

The U.S. Department of Education’s National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research has awarded a $4.75 million grant to the University of Pittsburgh to create the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC) on Spinal Cord Injury.

The University of Pittsburgh School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS) designed the center to address significant issues for people with spinal cord injury. The RERC team and collaborators include the department of rehabilitation science and technology, the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation, the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the department of Occupational Therapy at the University of Pittsburgh, in addition to Case Western Reserve University, Northwestern University, Baylor College of Medicine, IBM and Immunetrics. Continue Reading »

Recent injuries highlight hazards of the game

Heading into week four and putting a quarter of the regular season in the books for most teams, there have two major neck injuries in the NFL.

Buffalo Bills backup tight end Kevin Everett and Houston Texans defensive tackle Cedric Killings both suffered fractured Vertebrae. Everett was injured Sept. 9 and Killings on Sept. 23 after he collided with Indianapolis receiver Roy Hall.

“It was an unfortunate situation in Buffalo,” Houston coach Gary Kubiak said. “It was so difficult to deal with. For a moment there we were staring at a very difficult situation ourselves. We are just fortunate that our man came out OK.” Continue Reading »

One player’s pain paying off for fallen Bill

MIAMI: This is a story about good karma, with a tough beginning, a ton of tears, but a happy ending.

On Oct. 26, 1985, a 19-year-old middle linebacker for Citadel, Marc Buoniconti, suffered a dislocation of the third and fourth Cervical Vertebrae and a severe spinal cord injury while making a routine tackle. Now 40, Buoniconti has spent more than half his life in a wheelchair. Two weeks ago, Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett injured the same two cervical vertebrae while making a routine tackle. Doctors say Everett will walk soon. And he can thank Buoniconti. Continue Reading »

High schools take care to tackle spine injuries

A Toronto-based sports therapist who has attended to teenaged athletes injured in games during the past 25 years says the number of catastrophic injuries in high school football is low – but he’s concerned with the increase in head injuries and fractures.

Jim Panno, owner of Panno Therapeutic Inc., said more emphasis is needed by coaches when it comes to educating athletes – particularly those playing tackle football – on how to avoid serious injury. Continue Reading »

A Daring Course of Treatment

They cooled Kevin Everett down and then they operated. How quick-thinking doctors used some unproven interventions to help save a young football player with a spinal-cord injury.

Sept. 12, 2007 – A series of difficult and controversial medical decisions made in the immediate aftermath of Kevin Everett’s spinal-cord injury may have saved the 25-year-old professional football player’s life and mobility. On Monday, less than a day after the Buffalo Bills tight end fractured his Cervical spine during a game against the Denver Broncos, surgeons said he was unlikely ever to walk again. Today Everett is moving his arms and legs, and though he has a long and difficult recovery ahead of him, doctors say he may walk out of the hospital yet. Although no one can say for sure, the decision to chill Everett’s body during the ambulance ride to the hospital and to operate immediately may have made all the difference.

An estimated 10,000-12,000 people suffer spinal-cord injuries in the United States every year, most of them men between the ages of 16 and 30. Continue Reading »