New Academy to Improve Health Care for the Spinal Cord Injured

A new interdisciplinary force for quality health care for people living with spinal cord injury/dysfunction (SCI/D), the Academy of Spinal Cord Injury Professionals, will officially launch this week.

The new organization brings together physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers, and rehabilitation therapists, and is supported by Paralyzed Veterans of America (Paralyzed Veterans), the veterans service and disabilities rights organization.
"With the right partners, you can achieve anything," said Dr. Terrie Price, the newly-elected President of the Academy.

"Together, our Academy of physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers, and therapists will collaborate more closely to produce better treatment and quality-of-life outcomes for people living with spinal cord injury/dysfunction."

With the tagline "Many Minds, One Vision," the new Academy of Spinal Cord Injury Professionals (www.ascipro.org) is a merger of the American Association of Spinal Cord Injury Nurses, the American Association of Spinal Cord Injury Psychologists and Social Workers, the American Paraplegia Society, and the Therapy Leadership Council in Spinal Cord Injury.

The new Academy has one vision: a world where people with spinal cord injury are healthier, more independent, and more empowered through a comprehensive lifetime of care to take on all the challenges that life presents.

Psycho Stalker Who Paralyzed Model to be Sentenced

Christine Kent, devout Christian, one-time model, ski enthusiast, can no longer feel her legs -- but the pain persists.

As she adjusts to life in a wheelchair, Kent's cat is the only companion to hear her howl inside her Oakland Park house. Pain sears through her abdomen constantly. Painkillers aren't an option because she is allergic to drugs.
Despite the agony, she knows one thing: She could have died.

Two years ago, a stalker paralyzed her with a bullet to the spine but had planned to kidnap, cuff, rape, torture and kill her, police believe. Instead, Allan Sinclair IV shot Kent twice in her front yard, ran her over with his SUV, then dragged and hid her behind hedges.

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What's Better? A Country that has fund raisers for tramatic injury victims or a Country that takes care of them so they don't need fund raisers?

Bicyclist keeps spirit high after paralyzing accident

The former athlete supports a bill to give cyclists space on roads

John Henderson was riding his bicycle mauka on Kamehameha Highway from Haleiwa on May 2 when a tour bus hit him from behind, throwing him more than 90 feet.

The impact broke his left shoulder in three places, eight vertebrae and 13 ribs, and crushed both hips. It also damaged his colon, liver, spleen and heart, and punctured both lungs.

He was taken in critical condition to the Queen's Medical Center, where he underwent 18 hours of surgery. The injuries left him paralyzed from the belly button down and unable to move his left hand and arm.

When Henderson, who was a multi-sport athlete, went to a spinal cord rehabilitation center in Colorado, he could manage only to sit up long enough for the takeoff and landing aboard the airplane.

He returned to Oahu last month with the ability to sit up in a wheelchair -- with the help of powerful pain medication -- and enough strength in his left hand and arm to wheel himself around and pick up things. And he says he has some movement in his legs and feet, but not enough to walk.

Henderson, 35, said his positive attitude will help him improve further, which means learning to do some of the same activities he did before, but differently. He probably won't be able to walk, run or ride his bicycle again.

He's lived in a home in Waialua that faces open fields in the shadow of Mount Kaala because it gave him the opportunity to wake up in the morning, grab his mountain bike and go riding from his garage.

"I wake up to the same view, but I can't go. That's what's tough," he said last week.

He's filed a lawsuit against the tour bus company and the driver. And he's hoping his experience will raise bicycle safety awareness among both motorists and bicyclists, "so that what's happened to me won't happen to somebody else," he said.

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Caregiver Convicted of Stealing $20,000

Lansdale resident John Anthony Pallante, who prosecutors claimed descended upon a paralyzed Hatfield man like a vulture, was convicted of stealing more than $20,000 from the frail man while helping to care for him.

Pallante, 44, most recently of the 600 block of Cannon Avenue, showed no emotion and declined to comment Thursday moments after a Montgomery County jury convicted him of felony charges of theft by unlawful taking and conspiracy to commit theft in connection with thefts that occurred between March 2006 and February 2007 while he lived with the Hatfield man.

Heather Hall, 38, Pallante’s former roommate and girlfriend, previously pleaded guilty to theft and conspiracy charges and testified against Pallante during the two-day trial. Pallante and Hall once resided together in a second-floor apartment at the victim’s home in the 400 block of South Main Street in Hatfield.

“They descended upon him like vultures from the second floor. They saw him as an easy target and preyed upon him,” alleged Assistant District Attorney Tracey Potere. “They took his money and left him with nothing.”

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Well At Least He Has a Shed

Disabled man lives in storage shed.  What a Country!

Woodrow Reed needs paramedics to help him get home from the doctor. He's paralyzed and facing an incredible struggle.

Paramedics had to work hard to get Reed inside. He's living in a shed. His caregiver called CHANNEL 5 NEWS.

"[The shed] doesn't have a kitchen. They bring him in hot meals from a neighbor. Running water comes from outside. His bed at least fits in there," said Adela Martinez, Reed's caregiver.

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Cure and Care Merge

Life Rolls On Foundation and Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation Merge

On what would have been Christopher Reeve's 57th birthday, Life Rolls On Foundation (LRO) and the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation have announced a merger. Effective immediately, Life Rolls On Foundation, based in Los Angeles, will serve as the West Coast headquarters and division of the Reeve Foundation.

The Reeve Foundation is a national, non-profit organization dedicated to finding cures and treatments for spinal cord injuries and improving the lives of people living with paralysis. Life Rolls On, founded by Jesse and Josh Billauer, is dedicated to improving the quality of life for young people affected by spinal cord injury (SCI) and utilizes action sports as a platform to inspire infinite possibilities despite paralysis.

Both organizations' mission and focus will remain the same. LRO will continue to produce unique quality of life programs, including its award-winning, adaptive surfing program, They Will Surf Again, as well as education, motivation and awareness initiatives.

"Every cause has its moment," said Peter T. Wilderotter, president and CEO of the Reeve Foundation. "The Reeve Foundation and Life Rolls On believe that charting a new course and unifying the SCI community is necessary to create a better future and realize the greatest potential for discoveries, interventions and advancements, and for the best overall outcomes for the paralysis community as a whole," he added.

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Triplets: Lightning Strikes Twice - Two Spinal Injurys But One Still Plays

From left, Derek Coppola and his triplet brothers, Jared, Tyler, and Brandon, in 2007. Jared is recovering from a spinal cord injury; Brandon was hurt last fall. (Courtesy of Coppola Family)

The Coppola triplets did what Coppolas do. They played football.

Like their father, Skip, a former quarterback at Pope John High School in Everett, and older brother, Derek, a running back at the University of New Hampshire, the North Reading triplets played a violent sport because they loved it. All three were on the fast track a year ago to playing big roles this fall for the powerhouse football team at St. John’s Prep in Danvers.

Then, it was as if lightning struck the same house twice. Brandon Coppola was the first to fall, cracking a vertebra in his neck last October during a junior varsity game, ending his football career. Then, three weeks ago Friday, Jared crumpled after making a tackle during a varsity scrimmage in Lynn. He critically injured the same vertebra, C5, leaving much of his body paralyzed, suspending life as he knew it.

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"I Feel Like I've Lied to a Lot of People"

It was only a few years ago that the wheelchair-bound Christopher Reeve made impassioned pleas about expanding government funding for embryonic-stem-cell research, arguing that patients like him could benefit quickly from scientists' work. But then-president George W. Bush refused to allow government funding of any research that would destroy more human embryos. Reeve died in 2004 from cardiac arrest brought on by a bedsore, a common problem for paralyzed people. And stem-cell research, while still promising, hasn't managed to make Brown and others walk again. And that has left many of the 1,275,000 Americans with spinal-cord injuries rethinking exactly what they might realistically expect in the way of a "cure."

Not that the hope of finding a cure is no longer highly appealing. It's just that the definition of "cure" has radically changed, especially among those who have been injured for more than a few years. After all, if Reeve—who swore that one day he would walk again and had millions of dollars at his disposal—was unable to do so, why would anyone else?

So in the summer of 2008, the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation changed its slogan from "Go Forward" to "Today's Care. Tomorrow's Cure." "When we first started, our entire focus was to find a cure, to get people walking again," says Reeve Foundation president and CEO Peter Wilderhotter. "As we came to realize that since no injury is completely alike and given the complexity of the spinal cord—there will be no 'magic bullet.' " It is an argument that has raged in many disease-advocacy quarters over the years: when resources are limited, how much should you focus on making daily life better, and how much should you devote to the moonshot?
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Paralyzed Man to Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro

The moment of truth is almost at hand for a man who is no stranger to the toughest of challenges. In just a few days he'll be climbing Africa's Mt. Kilimanjaro as no one has ever climbed it before, as CBS News correspondent Karen Brown reports.

Don't tell Chris Waddell he can't climb a mountain. This week Waddell will try to become the first paraplegic, on his own power, to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro.

"I want them to go, 'Wow, I never thought that was possible,'" Waddell said.

Paralyzed at 20 in a freak ski accident, Waddell went on to become the most decorated Paralympic skier ever. But still, he's tired of just being "a guy in a wheel chair."

"I was an athlete for a long time - as a Paralympic athlete, I competed in almost complete obscurity," he said. "By getting to the tallest mountain out there, they have to look at me a bit differently."

At 19,340 feet, Kilimanjaro is the tallest peak in Africa. It's a so-called walkable mountain.

But when you are paralyzed from the waist down, it's all about your arms - and your will.

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More on the Walking Rats

An experiment that has helped paralyzed rats to walk again has raised new hopes for patients with spinal cord injury.

Researchers used a combination of drug therapy, electrical stimulation and exercise training to enable rats with spinal cord injuries to walk and support their body weight, according to the study, which was published this week in Nature Neuroscience.

Previous studies have used embryonic stem cells to repair damaged spinal nerves, allowing paralyzed rats to regain some function. But rather than reconnecting the spinal system with the brain, the new research focuses on stimulating and retraining the existing sensory system below the level of the injury.
Today, I spoke with principal investigator Reggie Edgerton, a professor of neurobiology and physiological sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, to learn more about the research, what it means and when similar studies will be conducted in humans. Here’s our conversation.

Q.

How soon can this animal research be translated for human studies?

A.

I’m very optimistic about it, and I’m also worried about projecting too much hope. I think there are a lot of possibilities here. I think there is a very high probability that a number of individuals with severe injuries can gain some functional improvement with this approach.
Based on the evidence from animals so far, we have learned a lot. It gives us a good starting point. My guess is that it’s going to work in humans. Two subjects who have incomplete injuries have already been implanted [with electrical stimulation devices]. They saw improved walking as a result of a similar type of stimulation. There are plans in place to go ahead with that process and test in a few subjects initially. We hope to begin testing within a year.
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Quadriplegic Doesn't Have to Starve to Death, Dies

An Australian quadriplegic who last month won the legal right to starve himself to death at a nursing home died today, his family said.  Christian Rossiter, 49, passed away from a recent illness at the Brightwater home in the western city of Perth, according to an e-mailed statement.

“I thank all those who have made Christian’s life in his final years as comfortable and as dignified as possible,” his brother Tim Rossiter said.

Rossiter suffered spinal injuries in 2004 in a road accident and was left a spastic quadriplegic after a fall last year. The Supreme Court of Western Australia ruled last month that the nursing home should comply with his wishes if he asked to stop being fed and hydrated.

Rossiter, who had limited foot movement, could wriggle one finger and talk through a tracheotomy, asked the nursing home numerous times to stop feeding and hydrating him through a tube into his stomach before the matter went to court.
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Paralyzed Rats Walk Again After Spinal Cord Injury

UCLA researchers have discovered that a combination of drugs, electrical stimulation and regular exercise can enable paralyzed rats to walk and even run again while supporting their full weight on a treadmill. Published Nov. 20 in the online edition of Nature Neuroscience, the findings suggest that the regeneration of severed nerve fibers is not required for paraplegic rats to learn to walk again. The finding may hold implications for human rehabilitation after spinal cord injuries.
"The spinal cord contains nerve circuits that can generate rhythmic activity without input from the brain to drive the hind leg muscles in a way that resembles walking called 'stepping,'" explained principal investigator Reggie Edgerton, a professor of neurobiology and physiological sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
"Previous studies have tried to tap into this circuitry to help victims of spinal cord injury," he added. "While other researchers have elicited similar leg movements in people with complete spinal injuries, they have not achieved full weight-bearing and sustained stepping as we have in our study."
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and a little more...

Wheelchair Rasta Dude Roughed Up by SD Police

Rev. Paul Cody arrested for legally selling medical marijuana.  SD Police pick him up by his arms behind his back and drag him into the back of the squad car.  For some reason the police involved get to remain anonymous but Paul is presumed guilty and now has two broken arms.

How Many Dead Monkeys To Cure a Spinal Cord?

A six-month dispute between a biotech company and a university primate facility it contracted for a study on spinal cord injury has prompted a lawsuit. Cambridge-based biotech InVivo Therapeutics filed suit against Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) with the US District Courts in Boston earlier this month (Sept. 1), claiming the school's primate center improperly cared for monkeys during the study, resulting in the death of four animals and a premature end to the research.

"We were surprised by the lawsuit," OHSU spokesperson Jim Newman told The Scientist. "We disagree with the claims that were made by InVivo and we plan to vigorously defend ourselves."

In January of this year, InVivo contracted OHSU's Oregon National Primate Center to host their research, which involved severing the spinal cords of rhesus monkeys to test the company's polymer device, designed to aid the recovery of lower body motor skills after spinal cord injury. But the study was halted in late February, after the first seven animals to undergo spinal-severing surgery developed bladder complications. Within days, four of the monkeys had to be euthanized.

InVivo is suing OHSU for not giving the monkeys proper post-surgical care, which they say caused the routine bladder problems to become more serious issues. They further charge OHSU with halting the experiment and euthanizing the animals against the company's wishes.

Super Safe Sex But Still a Baby

A local couple is getting ready for their first child, something they never thought they'd see because of a devastating accident that left one man a quadriplegic.

Rob Wall is a quadriplegic, and his wife, Amanda, is six months pregnant.

"I can't wait," Robert said. "We are getting back to doing something that we were planning to do before this whole injury happened."

The Walls married in 2004 in Leesburg, Va., and less than a year later Rob broke his neck in a diving accident.

"I fractured the 4th, 5th and 6th vertebrate and basically had no movement from my shoulders down," Rob said.

Dreams of having a family were shattered, or so they thought. I always wanted to be a mom. "I used to put little pillows in my shirt when I was like 8 and pretend," Amanda recalled. "A lot of my friends started to get pregnant around that time, and I was happy for them but not really."



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SWEET BOAT!

Nothing is impossible, as long as you have several million $ to spare.

Quadriplegic, Geoff Holt, 43, ready to cruise across the Atlantic.

See his awesome yacht.

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This is It - Cure Through Gel

Research led by a scientist at the Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center has shown injecting biomaterial gel into a spinal cord injury site provides significantly improved healing. The project that also included researchers from Purdue University and Arizona State University indicates that a "practical path" to treatment may be found for spinal injury patients.

The research led by the Mark Preul, MD of Barrow and Alyssa Panitch, PhD of Purdue was published in the Journal of Neurosurgery. Their study found that injection of an engineered hydrogel made up mainly of hyaluronic acid (a naturally-occurring body substance) into the spinal cord injury site decreases scarring and promotes a realignment of the spinal cord fibers around the injury site.
The hyaluronic acid which forms a scaffold-like configuration may help to structurally stabilize the spinal cord injury site. Tracing of cells in the brain stem after injury showed much higher levels in the hydrogel treated animals compared to animals which did not receive the treatment, and approached nearly normal levels. Treated animals had higher functional scores than non-treated animals.
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Harps and Health Care

For years, the job of a harp technician has been a coveted position, reserved for an elite, slightly buttoned-up few. Servicing such an instrument that's so full-bodied requires a deft touch, sharp ear and an affection for the dramatic.

George Flores, 39, is a former heavy metal band singer-guitarist who used to have long hair and an eyebrow piercing. That he became a harp technician -- one of about a dozen in the country -- in 1998 after years as a hard rocker makes him unique. Even more, this lifelong Chicagoan suffered a 2004 crash that left him a paraplegic, and he continues his labor of love, servicing the 100-pound, 6-foot-tall instruments.

How he's able to do this is a story about an odyssey through a health-care system -- in some of Chicago's most prestigious hospitals -- that he said he almost didn't survive.

"Once you're in the system, you can generate more revenue," said Flores, who has had four surgeries and countless procedures over the last five years. "We're focusing too much on institutionalizing people and not focusing enough on rehabilitation and investing in things like stem-cell research."

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For Better or Worse - Caregivers Whine

Getty Images

The Rose family's end-of-summer vacation was anything but relaxing when their trip to Lake Tahoe turned into a medical emergency. Rob, the father, woke up disoriented and confused, which is unusual but not completely unexpected, considering Rob is a quadriplegic. "It was really scary being away," said Rob's wife, Lisa, who had high hopes for this last getaway before the kids went back to school. It turns out that Rob had problems with an implanted pump that dispenses medication for his muscle spasms. He was okay, but had to spend his holiday in the hospital. "It was so disappointing. I felt bad for my kids," says Lisa, who struggles to maintain a positive attitude as life continues to throw her curve balls. Dealing with disappointment, stress, and exhaustion is all part of the role Lisa now plays as a caregiver wife.

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Light Switches to Help Restore Muscle Movement in Paralyzed

Molecular light switches are a fairly recent technological advancement that allows scientists to selectively activate cellular function using a light source, which in turn allows for more control when conducting biological experiments. The therapeutic potential of light switches is that they may be a good option to regulate muscles in paralyzed patients such as the diaphragm for breathing or the detrusor for bladder control. Now LucCell, a new spinoff company of Case Western University, is actively working to commercialize molecular switches to meet clinical needs.

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The Cure - It's Here! First Stem Cell Trials for SCI

WillWalk, an Austin based non-profit organization has committed itself to be at the forefront of ending Paralysis. WillWalk will raise $3 million to help fund the first non-controversial human stem cell trials for people with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI).

The money raised will fund the first of this kind of research in the U.S. The stem cells being used are a non-controversial adult stem cell from umbilical cord blood. These studies will be a landmark achievement in medicine and will be the first time stem cells are used on humans to treat chronic SCI.

Dr. Wise Young from the Keck Institute in New Jersey, is currently collaborating with doctors in Austin to work on conducting trials at the Brackenridge Brain and Spine Center in Austin, TX in conjunction with the Lone Star Paralysis Foundation. Initially, the trials will involve 30 patients of which a portion will be treated with the stem cells, and with Lithium to promote neuron growth, and extensive rehabilitation.




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Ranger Will Now Fight Terrorism From Chair

One year ago this week, the job that Romulo "Romy" Camargo loves nearly cost him his life.

On a mission to destroy a damaged piece of equipment near Kandahar, Afghanistan, the Army Ranger and his unit were ambushed. Fighting their way out of the attack, Camargo was shot in the neck.

Since then, the 33-year-old soldier has fought a different fight, one that at first was a fight just to live. Now Camargo, who is paralyzed from the neck down, fights to be independent, to walk again and to return to that which he loves — service to his country.

Recovering and undergoing rehabilitation at the James A. Haley VA Medical Center in Tampa, Camargo once mentioned to his patient advocate how he'd love to go home and along the way, he'd love to have a few motorcycles accompany him.

Romy Camargo gets a kiss from his wife, Gabriela, while waiting for the arrival of the Special Operations Command parachute team at Black Diamond Country Club. Camargo was shot in the neck during an ambush about a year ago in Afghanistan.

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Saving Quadriplegic Epic Moment of His Life

 

David Jolkovski/Jersey Journal photo - Taylor Siebel looks at the names of 9/11 victims at Bayonne's teardrop memorial.

For Peter Bitwinsky, who worked for the Port Authority on the 69th floor of World Trade Center Tower 1, the memories of the terrorists attacks are the strongest every time Sept. 11 comes around.

Bitwinsky was one of roughly 200 people gathered in Bayonne last night to commemorate the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The service, shortened due to rain, was at the teardrop-shaped memorial at Harbor View Park on the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor.


"It was a nice crowd despite the weather," Kubert said. "It's just a moment of remembering, and it's something I'm honored to be a part of."Bitwinsky escaped about 10 minutes before the building collapsed.
Together with seven colleagues, he carried a quadriplegic co-worker down 69 floors.

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Teddy Pendergrass - Quality of Life or Cure?

Interview with Teddy Pendergrass 25 years after his spinal cord injury.



Teddy Bear Live

Most Friendly Bar in DC Makes Wheelchair Dude Sit in Corner

A Georgetown University student who is in a wheelchair says he's taking legal action against a popular bar after he was asked to leave.

Five years ago, 23-year-old Georgetown University student Taylor Price dove into an ocean wave, hit his neck on a sandbar and suffered a spinal cord injury.

"I am the same guy I was five years I just get around different," he said.

Because he's confined to a wheelchair, Price argues he was treated differently and discriminated against by popular Georgetown restaurant Mr. Smith's on M Street -- where the sign reads, "Friendliest Saloon in Town."

Phil Collins Suffers Spinal Cord Injury - Will Never Play Drums Again

Phil Collins today revealed he will never drum again because he is suffering from a painful spine injury.
The former Genesis star can't even hold his sticks after years of sitting in front of a drumkit.

Too many hits: Playing has left Phil Collins in agony

Collins, 58, whose hits include In The Air Tonight, said: “After playing drums for 50 years, I've had to stop. My vertebrae have been crushing my spinal cord because of the position I drum in.

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Geckos Help Gimps!

The intriguing gecko lizard — known for shedding a tail that can flip, jump and lunge even after it’s severed — could shine a new light on how humans with spinal cord injuries might regain loss of movement.
Anthony Russell at the University of Calgary and a colleague in Southern Carolina have made the connection, looking at how gecko tails can exhibit complex movements within two minutes, and rythmic movement for up to 30 minutes after being shed to distract animals that are hunting them.
Clearly, Russel explains, the movement in the severed tail can happen without receiving any signals from the brain.

“Something in the tail is saying to the tail, ‘Lets use this muscle to move a lot, then take a break, then move again,’ ” says Russell.
The most plausible explanation is the tail is relying on sensory feedback from the environment, temperature, pressure, or other sensors on its surface, telling it to jump, pivot or travel in a certain direction, he said.
In much the same way, humans have also been known to experience movement or tremors even after a serious spinal cord injury that has led to permanent disability.  more...

There She is.... Ms. Wheelchair America

Seven years after losing her ability to walk, 28-year-old Erika Bogan returned home to Huntersville this week as the new Ms. Wheelchair America.

"Just because you're in a wheelchair doesn't mean you can't accomplish, and she's done it,” said the winner’s mother, Rebecca Nichols, who greeted her daughter at the airport.

Thirty minutes away in Huntersville, neighbors waited to welcome Bogan with signs and smiles. The scene for Ms. Wheelchair America is much different in 2009 than it was seven years ago, when a domestic violence-related car crash left her paralyzed from the knees down.

Bogan now looks at it as a positive event in her life.

"This wheelchair is such a blessing to me, and being in the accident I was in was a blessing,” she explained. “I wouldn't be where I am and I definitely wouldn't be who I am if it wouldn't have ever happened."

That’s the message Bogan took with her to the national competition last week in South Dakota. It helped her take the top spot among the 27 women competing.

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NFL Eliminates the Wedge to Reduce Spine Injuries

The NFL's decision to eliminate three- and four-man wedge formations on kickoff-return teams has prompted coaches to design innovative wrinkles to adapt to the rule change.

The league's emphasis on player safety helped legislate human snowplows of three or more shoulder-to-shoulder behemoths out of the game. Only two of the league's 32 teams didn't use wedge clusters last season, according to the league's vice president for officiating Mike Pereira.The NFL's competition committee cited the nature -- not the frequency -- of injuries on kickoffs as the driving force behind eliminating a wall of three 300-pound blockers interlocking arms or joining hands on kickoffs. Neck injuries and concussions often resulted when players plunged into the wedge, head down, to break up the human roadblocks.
"We were seeing some of these violent collisions at both ends of it," said competition committee member Tony Richardson, who was a member of the Jets' three-man wedge last season. "The guys in the wedge were getting pummeled, and the guys hitting the wedge were getting pummeled."
Freak injuries on kickoffs, of course, aren't limited to wedge collisions. Bills special teamer Kevin Everett's spinal cord injury that caused temporary paralysis on a blast on then-Broncos returner Dominik Hixon two years ago occurred outside of the cluster formation.

New York Jets Robert Turner discusses the two-man wedge

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Quadriplegic Wins! Allowed to Starve to Death

In permitting a person to starve to death, he has also opened a debate about whether people should be allowed legal access to more humane ways to die.
Christian Rossiter is a resident of the Brightwater Care Group in Perth. He came into the group's care late last year after becoming a quadriplegic after a road accident. There is no doubt about his ability to understand his condition and to make reasoned choices on his own behalf.
His fully functioning mind is trapped within a badly broken body. As Rossiter told the court, he is "unable to undertake any basic human functions". He can make only a little foot movement and wriggle one finger, and is unable to eat or drink. Nutrition is provided to him through a tube inserted directly into his stomach.

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Parents Jump Off Cliff Over Death of Paralyzed Son

Sam, who was left a quadriplegic after a serious car crash in 2005, lost his battle with meningitis at the end of May.  His parents, Neil and Kazumi, were so devastated that they drove from their Wiltshire home with his corpse to Beachy Head two days later to end their own lives.  Coastguard found two rucksacks with the bodies - one containing Sam’s body, the other filled with his toys.

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Hot Irons Sparks Fancy Chair

Jordan Kay is proving that no job is out of reach.
Kay, a welder in work experience training with the City of Minot, was in kindergarten when he was paralyzed in a car accident. His dream to become a welder in a mechanics shop might have been dashed but for the help and ingenuity of instructors at North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton.
Many fabrication welding tasks require standing to be able to reach equipment or work on machines. Faculty at the college created a wheelchair with a lift mechanism that enables Kay to stand to perform a job. The chair designed especially for Kay was the subject of an article published in the September issue of the Welding Journal.

Jordan Kay shows off the stand-up wheelchair Sept. 2 that he uses to accomplish certain welding assignments at his job with the City of Minot.

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20 Years for Drunk Driving Dad who Paralyzed Daughter

Justin Blashaw, 30, of Fairview Park was sentenced to 20 years in jail Aug. 27 for a drunken driving crash that left his 7-year-old daughter permanently paralyzed.

Justin Blashaw

Blashaw pleaded guilty earlier this month to aggravated vehicular assault, two counts of driving under the influence, four counts of child endangerment and obstructing official business.
The accident took place at about 1 a.m. May 17 while Blashaw was driving his girlfriend's car without a license. He crashed on Interstate 90 in Rocky River near the Hilliard Boulevard exit with his children inside, leaving 4-year-old Zara with a broken foot. His 7-year-old daughter Kyah was sitting in the front seat and suffered severe brain damage and a broken spine. She is receiving treatment at the Cleveland Clinic.

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Mind Control Now at $100

"May the Force be with you," the popular refrain from the Star Wars movies, has beckoned many a sci-fi fan with its promise of mind-control powers.

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But a real-world counterpart of the mystical Force has been a tantalizing concept floating outside the grasp of regular people.

That is, until now.
Brain-control interface technology is in the midst of a big coming-out party this year as it reaches the mass market for the first time in the form of a handful of games and toys.

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Quad Buys Food for Homeless

Wheelchair Dance?

Walkathon for Man Who Can't Walk

Raffles, fundraisers, and walkathons in lieu of health coverage.

Laurie Valenzuela is hoping hundreds of people will turn out this Saturday to walk for her older brother, who can no longer walk on his own.

Her brother, Keith Peterson, was left paralyzed from the chest bone down after the four-wheel ATV he was riding flipped over on him this summer.

Davie resident Laurie Valenzuela is organizing a 5k walkathon this coming Saturday to benefit her older brother Keith, who was paralyzed following an accident this summer. Here Keith, a a longtime South Florida resident, left, visits with grandson Austin, 6, at a rehab center in Atlanta where he is recovering.

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Woman Chasing Miracles

TEMPE, AZ -- It was May of 2007, when Trish Stressman was paralyzed from the chest down during an ATV accident in Mexico with her husband.

"I was like 'Scott let's go see the seagulls' and we wanted to drive out to them and see them fly," said Stressman. "That's the last thing I remember."

She was airlifted to a Phoenix hospital where she said doctors told her, "'This is horrible,' before I went into surgery they told me when I was all alone in my room I would never walk again."

Parents Sue School for Hazing Paralyzed Son

The family of a former St. Ignatius College Prep student sued the school Monday for negligence over an alleged hazing incident that left him quadriplegic 2 ½ years ago.

Christopher Connolly, then a 15-year-old freshman, suffered the injuries when he struck his head on the bottom of the school swimming pool while practicing with the junior-varsity water polo team in February 2007.

A swimming pool injury left Christopher Connolly paralyzed, and his parents have sued St. Ignatius College Prep, alleging hazing.   more...

Paralyzed Athlete's Jersey Retired

ANTON, GA -- It has only been about four months since Cherokee High School football star Matthew Blaylock's life took a tragic turn. He is already an inspiration to many and driven to walk again.

Blaylock suffered a paralyzing neck injury in a pool accident last may, the day before he was to graduate from high school. His jersey was retired before Friday night's game between his former team and Harrison High School.

It was an emotional ceremony that put the game on the back seat. The number 4 was retired, a number that will forever be associated with Matthew Blaylock. "I don't even know what to say," Blaylock said before the ceremony. "I'm speechless because I never thought this would ever happen."

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25 People Help Quad "Surf" with Dog

Ricochet a Golden Retriever has been surfing since she was a puppy.  Golden Retrievers love a good job to do and commonly make bringing a tennis ball back over and over the chosen sport.  Ricochet, better known as Rip Curl Ricki in the water, not only learned to surf and hang in the ocean but has become the tandem surfing partner to 15 year old Patrick Ivison.



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Sip n Puff Sailor

LONDON, England (CNN) -- When they set sail from harbor most yachtsmen leave only their worries behind. But when Hilary Lister goes out to sea, she sheds an entire way of life.

Hilary Lister says she feels "a thousand times" more free when she sails.

The 36-year-old Briton is a quadriplegic who can only move her head, eyes and mouth and needs to rely on carers for almost every need.
In spite of these restrictions she became the first disabled woman to sail solo around Britain Monday scoring a victory against the rare degenerative illness she has suffered from since age 11.

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SCI Victim Needs Raffle to Pay Medical Bills

Friends of bodysurfer wounded at Wedge are organizing fundraiser to help cover expenses for physical therapy. Doctors believe that he might not regain ability to walk.

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Spinal injuries cast clouds over Cape May beach scene

CAPE MAY—It was their 30th wedding anniversary, Judy Taylor of Lansdale, Pa. said. A family tradition, and a tradition for Judy’s wife, David Taylor, since he was eight years old, was to come to Cape May. According to David, a self-proclaimed avid body surfer, the seas were calm on Aug. 17, 2007. Taking notice, he turned to his son who was sitting on the 2nd Avenue beach with him, and said that the body surfing wouldn’t be so good that day.
But, for the love of the sport, David and his son ventured into the calm and enticing Cape May waters.
Since that day, David has been a quadriplegic. It was on that day, like any other summer day at the shore, which he rode a wave in on his 250-pound body and crashed into the steep wall of sand that meets the waters edge along the coastline.
“At the time I weighed 250 pounds, so I didn’t think there was a wave out there that could knock me over,” David said. “There’s no ways to describe this unless you’ve actually experienced this.”
Taylor said that his son had noticed him lying in the shallow water, not moving much and ran over to him, along with Cape May lifeguard Al Pappas, who stabilized him so that he could be transported to a hospital.
Taylor was medevaced to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in Atlantic City to be treated for his injuries. At the time, he was told that he would have a 30 percent chance of recovery.

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Paralyzed teen racer traveling to Portugal for stem cell therapy

Paralyzed from the waist down in a 2005 motorcycle crash, the Vienna Township teen, 16, uses his hands to propel himself around the track in his specially equipped go-kart -- winning one state and one national title in races as far away as Quebec and Florida.
This week, the Frankenmuth High School junior is racing toward another goal: He's flying to Portugal to undergo an experimental stem cell transplant he hopes will repair his spinal cord and enable him to walk again for the first time since he was 12 years old.

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Spinal injury drug developed cysts in animals: Geron

BANGALORE (Reuters) - Geron Corp said animals injected with its experimental cell therapy for subacute spinal cord injury developed microscopic cysts in the injury site, but its shares rose as the company reported none of the animals developed teratomas, a kind of tumor.

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Study Finds Paralysis is Far More Common than Previously Documented

A recent report published by the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation has revealed that the numbers of people living with paralysis and spinal cord injury are far greater than previous estimates suggested. The new report, authored by a team of 60 scientists, academics, and health care professionals, sheds much needed awareness on the nearly 6 million Americans suffering with some form of paralysis or spinal cord injury.

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