Varied therapies for spinal cord injury

There is no cure for a spinal cord injury, but much headway has been made in clinical research that could lead to one. Other therapies have helped to restore some function in spinal cord injured patients. A look at some efforts:

CELL TRANSPLANTATION

Cell-based therapies hold the potential for replacing cells and restoring function lost to disease or injury. Among those being developed to help treat spinal cord injuries: Continue Reading »

Surfer girl finds out how fragile life really is

Devyn Bisson, 15, suffers a spinal cord injury, gears up the courage to surf again.

HUNTINGTON BEACH She doesn’t remember the man’s name or much more about him. Just that he approached her and asked for donations as she worked at Becker Surfboards.

And how that changed everything.

On that summer day in 2007, Devyn Bisson was the kind of 15-year-old that we want all 15-year-olds to be – bright, athletic, enthusiastic, a bundle of bounce. She was intrigued by what this man was saying. Continue Reading »

Quick Decompression Aids Spinal Injury Recovery

(HealthDay News) — Patients having decompression surgery within 24 hours of a Cervical spinal cord injury may have a better outcome than those who have the procedure later, according to new research.

Surgical decompression of the spinal cord involves the removal of various tissue or bone fragments that are being squeezed and comprising the spinal cord. While commonly done after an injury occurs, the timing of the procedure varies widely.

The study looked at 170 patients with cervical spinal cord injuries, graded as A (most several neurological involvement) to D (least severe), who underwent decompression surgery. Continue Reading »

The Quest for a Cure: Paving the Way in Paraplegic Research

World’s Leading Spinal Cord Scientists Meet in Salzburg, Austria

SANTA MONICA, CA–(MARKET WIRE)–Apr 28, 2008 — The foremost spinal cord injury researchers from the U.S. and around the globe will meet in Salzburg’s Hangar 7 this April 28-May 2 for a scientific symposium hosted by Wings for Life Spinal Cord Research Foundation. Twenty-six of the world’s most renowned neuroscientists, including 13 U.S. scholars, will be discussing such topics as an injured spinal cord’s ability to regenerate and the potential treatments for Paraplegia.

Symposium presenters include Stephen Strittmatter of Yale University School of Medicine speaking on “The Nogo Receptor Pathway Regulating Axonal Growth after Spinal Cord Injury” and a talk entitled “Microglia in CNS Inflammation” by David Hafler of Harvard Medical School. Amongst cross-continental contributors is Vienna-based neuroscientist Friedrich Propst who has examined a possible therapeutic approach with molecules which are released during a spinal cord injury within the nerve fibre itself that then inhibit the nerves from reconnecting. Propst, along with handful of presenters each day, will provide the basis for an ongoing dialogue amongst their professional peers. Continue Reading »

Support the Wall

This website was created in order to support Robert Wall during hisrecovery from the devastating spinal cord injury that occurred onAugust 20, 2005 while on vacation.  On that day, Rob sustainedparalysis from the shoulders down after diving into shallow water.

A cyclist’s uphill battle to get his life back

The attorney lay awake in his hospital room, listening.

Even now, in the cold November dawn, helicopters landed, sirens wailed and respirators hummed with purpose. Nothing ever stopped at Harborview Medical Center.

And Mickey Gendler had a front-row seat to it all.

As he lay there, he replayed the accident a thousand times. The moment his bike tire caught in the grate. The flip over his handlebars. Later, his wife’s face when they heard the words “spinal-cord injury.”

Gendler watched the clock. It was time for the nurses to turn him in bed, a ritual that happened every two hours, another reminder that his body, all 6 feet 4 inches, had become the domain of others. Continue Reading »

Promising new drug for spinal cord injuries

Each year in the United States, about 11,000 people suffer a spinal cord injury.

Recent research shows what happens in the first days after an injury has a big impact on how well patients recover.

And a new drug is showing big promise.

Two years ago, Johnathen Picco fell through a roof doing construction.

“After my operation, they said I wouldn’t be able to walk again,” he said.

In fact, doctors thought he wouldn’t even be able to sit up again. But then he got a drug never before tested on humans.

“We can actually potentially repair and regenerate the injured nervous system,” said Michael Fehlings, neurosurgeon at Toronto Western Hospital. Continue Reading »

Experimental Russian stem cell treatments for spinal injury credited for woman’s progress

When Kadi DeHaan took her first steps in December, two years after a car accident forced her into a wheelchair, she did it in typical Kadi style: low-key, nonchalant and with a confident grin.

Apparently, she knew all along she would walk away from her pink and black wheelchair and her customized leg braces, despite a spinal cord injury at chest level and a grim prognosis that she would never walk again.
Press Photo/Katy BatdorffTherapists help guide Kadi DeHaan’s legs and feet as she walks through the hallway at MVP gym in Rockford. The movements must be “ingrained neurologically” before they will become automatic, said therapist Sandy Burns.

“Whenever it happens, it happens,” she would tell her mom.

It happened after two years of intensive therapy and six trips to Russia, where her stem cells were harvested and then injected into her spinal cord to restore nerves. Continue Reading »

West Seattle native fights back from bizarre surfing injury

That’s 20-year-old Adrianna “Addie” Killam, who grew up in West Seattle — graduating from Our Lady of Guadalupe in 2002, Holy Names Academy in 2006, then heading to Arizona to go to college at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical and Engineering University. Today, she traveled home to Seattle on a plane from Maui – but it was no tourism flight – it was a “medical lift” so that Addie could be admitted to the University of Washington Medical Center for therapy and rehab after a spring-break surfing jaunt left her with a spinal-cord injury. Family friend Maureen Emerson e-mailed WSB to help get the word out about Addie’s injury — which didn’t happen the way you might think after hearing the phrase “surfing injury” — and her fight to recover, which she’s chronicling online: Continue Reading »

Everett visits paralysis researchers

Kevin Everett and Marc Buoniconti each suffered a severe spinal cord injury while making a tackle. The difference between them on Friday was the result of more than 20 years of research.

Buoniconti has used a wheelchair since being paralyzed while playing football for The Citadel in 1985.

Everett walked through the lobby of The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis just about seven months after he crumpled face-down on the turf following a tackle in which his helmet struck another player’s helmet and shoulder pad.

The former Buffalo Bills tight end praised the experimental therapies being developed at the world’s largest spinal cord injury research center. Continue Reading »