Extensive Natural Recovery Seen After Spinal Cord Injury

Newswise — A study led by researchers in the Department of Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine shows unexpected and extensive natural recovery after spinal cord injury in primates. The findings, to be published November 14 in the advance online edition of Nature Neuroscience, may one day lead to the development of new treatments for patients with spinal cord injuries.

While regeneration after severe brain and spinal cord injury is limited, milder injuries are often followed by good functional recovery. Continue Reading »

Patients rave about spinal-cord therapy, but insurance won’t cover it

Families of two paralyzed Bay State teens are calling on insurance companies to step up and fund the life-altering therapy that they say has given their sons new hope, but is painfully out of grasp for so many other families.

“It is a shame that insurance doesn’t cover it,” said Michael Brown, who uses donations from the community to pay the $100-an-hour bill for his son, paralyzed Norwood hockey player Matt Brown, to get therapy at Journey Forward, a Canton rehabilitation center. Continue Reading »

Just the beginning: Embryonic stem cells used on first patient

For the first time, surgeons have injected a spinal cord injury patient with human embryonic stem cells in a federally approved experiment, a biomedical firm said Oct. 11.

Food and Drug Administration officials approved the start of the privately funded safety trial in July, allowing a long-awaited test of the cells, which were grown from a single embryo to resemble forerunners to spinal cells. The unnamed patient received the cells at the Shepherd Center, an Atlanta hospital specializing in brain, spine and related ailments. 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 »

Monkey Business in Concord

How a Capuchin monkey aids the life of a 27-year-old Concord man and his big family.

Ned Sullivan is taking it one day at a time these days. He’s living at home with his brothers and sisters, dogs, parents, and Kasey, his service monkey.

Sullivan’s mother, Ellen Rogers, spoke at the Concord Bookshop on Sunday about the journey from Ned’s horrifying car accident in Arizona to maintaining a mostly normal life with the help of Kasey who was donated to the family by Helping Hands, a Boston nonprofit. Continue Reading »

We should support stem cell research

I have very strong feelings about the support of stem cell research, and I should – I have a friend whose life could be dramatically changed from the benefits of stem cell therapy.

Imagine you’ve just turned 16 and are right in the middle of your sophomore year of high school. You’re a gorgeous, vibrant, ambitious girl who loves to cheer and swim, donate your time to worthy causes, and just won your first beauty pageant – and a scholarship to attend the college of your choice along with it – the key to fulfilling your dreams and making the picture of your future in your head a reality. Continue Reading »

Gering man walks again

After spinal cord injury, Mark Rexus was told by doctors that he wouldn’t

After suffering a spinal cord injury in a work-related accident, doctors told Mark Rexus that he would never walk again.

“Only one doctor believed that I’d walk again,” he says after completing a walk from his front door to the end of his driveway, holding his 23-year-old daughter Sam’s arm on his left and using a cane for assistance in his right hand. 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 »

‘Second Opinion’ takes prime-time look at spinal cord injuries

ROCHESTER — Spinal cord injuries — which more than 11,000 American suffer each year — will be the focus of a special edition of WXXI-TV’s national heathcare series “Second Opinion.”

The episode airs 9 p.m. Thursday on WXXI-TV, channel 21 in Rochester, and cable channel 11 in Batavia. Continue Reading »