In 1970, Ken Kunken suffers a crippling spinal cord injury and broken neck in a college football game. Continue Reading »

Eddie Murray planted a big kiss on the side of Mike Utley’s face Monday.

From his wheelchair, Utley fought Murray off before he could deliver a second.

“I know he hates that,” Murray said, laughing. “But I love the guy.”

Murray, 53, one of the NFL’s most successful kickers ever, is still amazed, he says, with Utley’s courage and commitment. They were Lions teammates when Utley, an offensive guard, was paralyzed from the waist down in a game against the Los Angeles Rams at the Silverdome on Nov. 17, 1991. Continue Reading »

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Rick Hansen talks about cutting-edge spinal cord research being conducted at the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries Continue Reading »

NCPAD presents “Exercise Program for Individuals with Spinal Cord Injuries: Paraplegia”. Continue Reading »

A study funded by the U.S. Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, produced results that show the vitamin folate appears to promote healing in damaged rat spinal cord tissue by triggering a change in DNA. Findings of the study were published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Continue Reading »

Bowel care routines after spinal cord injury must be established and tailored to patients’ individual needs. Policies and procedures need to be regularly reviewed

This case study explores the problems that can occur when patients receive ineffective bowel care following spinal cord injury. It also investigates the implications of using anal irrigation for specialist and generalist nurses, education and audit. Continue Reading »

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Chris Canales knew before that night that his life would soon change. He just expected it to go in a different direction.

It was the final regular season game of his senior season at San Marcos Baptist Academy, and the all-conference defensive back and punter already had received three college scholarship offers. Continue Reading »

Paralysed patients will one day be able to move their bodies using a robotic device controlled by a chip that has been implanted in their brain.

Scientists are developing tiny chips that will be able to read a patient’s thoughts and transmit the information wirelessly to prosthetic limbs.

The chip, measuring little more than a centimetre wide, would decode patients’ thoughts by analysing the activity of neurons in the brain when they think of a specific movement. Continue Reading »

Antibody treatment could significantly improve lives following a spinal cord injury

The United States Department of Defense Spinal Cord Injury Research Program has announced a grant of more than a million dollars U.S. to support research at the Robarts Research Institute at The University of Western Ontario (Western). The spinal cord injury research team of Gregory Dekaban, Arthur Brown, Lynne Weaver and Paula Foster, in collaboration with Brian Kwon of the University of British Columbia and Kyle Petersen of the U.S. Naval Medical Research Center, is working on a new therapy designed to limit the damage caused by inflammation immediately following spinal cord injury. The grant will move their work, led by Dekaban, closer to a clinical trial. Continue Reading »