Wheelchairs roll, and rock: Spinal injury patients offer help to live life kingsize

New Delhi, August 29:* Nekram Upadhyay is 34, suffers from polio, walks with a crutch, and has won the prestigious Ford Fellowship.
* Dr Tomasz Tasiemski lost sensation in limbs after an accident, is wheelchair-bound, and the father of two is now a professor at the Institute of Rehabilitation back in Poland.

Disabled? Forget it; they now assists others. To lead a self-dependent life. The conference room at the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre is packed with wheelchair-bound individuals who have come to attend the active rehabilitation centre.

“In the West, active rehabilitation is an integral part of treatment after physiotherapy. It’s essential to make people realise that they can live just as well despite their Disability,” says Jyoti Vidhiani, the 2005 recipient of Heinz Fellowship for rehabilitation counselling. Continue Reading »

Resident says city is balking on wheelchair ramp promise

Pamela Bell has been disabled for more than three years.

When a spinal cord injury eventually made the Jacksonville resident wheelchair bound a year and a half ago, Bell found herself living in an apartment not properly devised for her new situation.

On a fixed income, Bell said she has had to look everywhere for assistance to help modify her home. When all hope seemed lost, she found help in the city of Jacksonville’s Community Development Division.

But when the division’s extended promises of a free wheelchair access ramp turned into a $4,500 bill, Bell decided to file a complaint against the city. Continue Reading »

Road to Recovery

One warm summer evening, Tamara Mena-Perez lay in her bed gazing at a row of medication bottles on her dresser.

She started getting angry. It had been nearly a year after the car accident that left her paralyzed below the waist, and she was supposed to be getting better, not swallowing all these pills.

As she stared at the bottles — emblazoned with “do not drink alcohol” warnings — she had a moment of clarity; she finally understood.

Mena-Perez, 21, had been asking “Why?” for so long. Why was her longtime boyfriend, Patrick Riner, a fellow Davis High School graduate, killed in the October 2005 car crash? Why was she spared? Continue Reading »

Injury gives athlete opportunities

Most people might not say a spinal cord injury is a positive event in their lives. Brian Sheridan does.

A life-long athlete who had hoped to play football at Central Michigan University, Sheridan was 18 when he tried to do a back flip at a gym but landed wrong. As he lay on the mat, all sensation draining from his body, Sheridan remembers thinking something wasn’t right.

But now, the 31-year-old says the injury opened countless doors and spurred him to become an Occupational Therapist, a small-business owner and a wheelchair rugby player. He’s also a father to 11-year-old Laken and runs a nonprofit group that helps bring modified sports equipment to disabled athletes. Continue Reading »

Paralyzed athletes pin hopes on UCI researcher

An Irvine professor studies stem cells to look for a treatment for spinal cord injuries.

The motorcycle roars to life.

From his wheelchair David Bailey watches it take off.

Someday, the motocross and Supercross legend thinks. Someday soon – maybe.

For years, the promise of even modest recovery from the type of chronic spinal cord injury that Bailey had two decades ago has been little more than a cruel mirage. Continue Reading »

Paralympian creates ‘fashion-able’ clothes

Teri Thorson doesn’t think people in wheelchairs should have to choose between fashion and function.

The former Paralympian wheelchair racer is launching her own line of stylish and comfortable clothing for people in wheelchairs.

“Since I’ve been in a chair, I’ve struggled to find clothing that fits me properly and still looks good,” she said. Continue Reading »

Disabled laud efforts to make intimacy easier

Alan Tholkes expected good-natured ribbing when he shared his new-product idea with colleagues at HealthPostures, the ergonomic-furniture company in Glencoe, Minn., that he co-founded in 1999.

The idea was a gliding chair with adjustable legs and back support, but it would not be something you’d take to a softball game.

The IntimateRider (www. intimaterider.com), now being launched nationally and retailing for just under $500, is a sex aid for the physically disabled. That includes Tholkes, who became a quadriplegic at age 17 as the result of a car crash. The chair, he said, is especially helpful for people with spinal cord injuries, arthritis, chronic back pain and other debilitating ailments, offering support and ease of motion that allows many couples to enjoy sex again. Continue Reading »

To empower, to overcome

Back to Back foundation to hold fundraiser at Jesse’s Restaurant on Friday

MAGNOLIA SPRINGS – The Back to Back Foundation, a budding non-profit dedicated to improving the lives of individuals with spinal cord injuries, will hold its first fundraiser at Jesse’s Restaurant, Magnolia Springs, on Friday beginning at 6 p.m.

MAGNOLIA SPRINGS – The Back to Back Foundation, a budding non-profit dedicated to improving the lives of individuals with spinal cord injuries, will hold its first fundraiser at Jesse’s Restaurant, Magnolia Springs, on Friday beginning at 6 p.m. Continue Reading »

Vets set sights on Wheelchair Games

MANSFIELD — Lola Sanderson was intrigued when she saw Jonathan Merchant hand-pedaling a three-wheel cycle on the road near her house.

He was young and disabled. So was she.

But he also seemed to be on a mission.

“I just had to swing my van around and go talk to him,” she said.

Merchant was training for this week’s National Veterans Wheelchair Games in Milwaukee, and it wasn’t long before Sanderson was training for it, too. Continue Reading »

Disabled Vets to Test Limits During Wheelchair Games

More than 20 veterans injured during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan will join some 600 other disabled veterans next week for the 27th National Veterans Wheelchair Games.

Washington, D.C. – American Forces Press Service – infoZine -The games, sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs and Paralyzed Veterans of America, will run from June 19 to 23 at venues throughout the Milwaukee area.

The games are open to all U.S. military veterans under VA care who use wheelchairs for sports competition due to spinal cord injuries, certain neurological conditions, amputations or other mobility impairments. Continue Reading »