For Taylor Chace, it was an accident in a hockey game when he was 16; an accident that left him with a shattered lower back, a traumatic spinal cord injury that permanently affected the use of both legs.

For Jon Parker, it was an accident in a ski race during high school at Vermont’s Burke Academy that led to him losing his leg.

Ted Broderick and Josh Moran were born with it. Broderick, a congenital amputee, is missing his right forearm. Moran was born with missing a bone in his left leg and a fused right elbow, as well as being growth hormone deficient. Continue Reading »

Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation expresses appreciation to Congressional co-sponsors for passing first legislation specific to the paralysis community

SHORT HILLS, N.J., March 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, the national, non-profit organization dedicated to finding cures and treatments for spinal cord injuries and improving the lives of people living with paralysis, applauds President Obama for signing the Omnibus Public Lands Bill. Passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on March 25 and the U.S. Senate on January 15, Title XIV of the Bill contains the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act. The Act was named for the late Christopher Reeve and his wife Dana, whose courage and grace in the face of adversity, coupled with their extraordinary activism, were an inspiration to millions around the world. Continue Reading »

Brooke Ellison speaks about the controversial issue of stem cell research.

At 11 years old, Brooke Ellison was just like any other kid. She danced, she sang and she enjoyed playing in her neighborhood with her friends. That is until her life changed in an instant. “One day I’m walking home from school, anxious to play with my friends, and the next I’m confined to a wheelchair, breathing with the help of a tube,” says Ellison, now 30, of the car accident that ended with a one-year hospital stay from a spinal cord injury. It is then that she decided that she would become an advocate for stem cell research, “I wanted to help further the issue in any way that I could.” Continue Reading »

WALLED LAKE – From great adversity, heroes can emerge. They then can inspire and lead others to become more than they ever imagined. Walled Lake Central High School physical education teacher Kirk Pedersen, who suffered a severe spinal cord injury Oct. 25 when he fell out of a tree stand and broke his neck, is considered a hero by staff and the 1,600 students at the school where he has taught for four years.

Pedersen, 38, of Northville and a graduate of Eastern Michigan University, was transferred from a facility in Louisville, Ky., on March 25 to the Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital in Grand Rapids. Continue Reading »

DaVinci Biosciences, in collaboration with Luis Vernaza Hospital in Ecuador, have announced the publication of study results demonstrating the safety and feasibility of its acute and chronic spinal cord injury treatment platform in Cell Transplantation, a peer-reviewed journal focused on regenerative medicine. The study demonstrates that administering adult autologous bone marrow derived stem cells via multiple routes is feasible, safe, and most importantly, improves the quality of life for both acute and chronic spinal cord injury (SCI) patients. Continue Reading »

Contestants gathered from all over the state for a very special pageant in the Valley Saturday. It’s the 2009-2010 Ms. Wheelchair Virginia pageant.

The event was held at Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center in Fishersville to celebrate the accomplishments of Virginians with disabilities.

Contestants say it’s a great way to get together for a good time, while inspiring and motivating others. Continue Reading »

Margaret Romph, 5, will be transferring to facility in Maryland

On Jan. 2, the Romph family’s lives changed forever.

A car accident left the youngest, 5-year-old Margaret, with severe injuries, including an injury to her spinal cord that has left her in a wheelchair.

Nearly three months after the accident, Margaret now is undergoing therapy at Ranken Jordan, a pediatric specialty hospital in Maryland Heights, where she was transferred from the University of Missouri-Columbia Hospital Feb. 16.

“She was as stable as the hospital could have gotten her,” said Margaret’s mother, Sherline. “She was ready for the rehab portion of our journey.” Continue Reading »

Surviving a spinal cord injury is something to be thankful for, but it’s still devastating.

For one New Yorker, an accident changed his life forever – but a new device is helping him regain his independence.
Spinal cord injuries not only affect a person’s ability to move – they can also hamper patients’ ability to breathe. When that happens, patients are required to be attached to a bulky ventilator at all times.

Now, though, a device is helping one spinal injury victim get off the machine and breathe easier.

For 31-year-old semi-pro football player Jamal Davis, one tackle changed his life forever. Continue Reading »

Dr. Joanne Stolen

When I taught at Rutgers University, my department chair was Wise Young, a pioneer in spinal chord rehabilitation. The Keck Center, where the research was done, was conveniently in the same building as my honors class, and they graciously gave us tours. This state-of-the-art facility is designed with low lab benches, so wheelchair-bound people can participate in the research and work in the lab. Dr. Young’s lab has been successful in getting a paralyzed rat with spinal chord injury to walk again. Because of the lack of funding in the U.S., foreign countries — especially China — have taken up the cause, and the U.S. is again left behind in scientific research. There is a network of 24 major spinal-cord injury centers in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Dr. Young writes: “For nearly eight years, the Bush Administration has suppressed not only embryonic stem cell (ESC) research but all stem cell research, even though stem cells are widely acknowledged by scientists to be the most important biomedical advance of the decade. Continue Reading »

Life after a spinal cord injury is filled with the challenge of accepting your injury, coping with your limitations and adjusting to an entirely new way of seeing the world. Here, six men and women talk about their lives after a spinal cord injury. Click here to listen.