Researchers hope a “cure” for serious disabilities could soon be found in a Wollongong laboratory.

A $4.7 million research program launched yesterday could produce a major breakthrough in the treatment of muscle, nerve or spinal cord damage, according to Professor Gordon Wallace.

The program will be based at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science at the University of Wollongong’s Innovation Campus in Fairy Meadow.

An elite team of international researchers and students has been assembled to develop tiny implants with the capacity to trigger the regrowth of damaged nerves and muscles. Continue Reading »

Emily Shryock got involved in the sport of quad rugby to stay active and competitive despite using a wheelchair. What she gained was independence.

“When I started playing, there was a great feeling of comradery. I saw my teammates and thought: If they can do it, I can do it,” said Shryock, 25, an Indiana native who now lives in Austin, Texas. “It’s given me a lot more confidence. … Confidence has translated into independence.”

Shryock, who was disabled by neurological Lyme disease, plays for the Texas Stampede, one of 16 teams from across the United States participating in the 2012 U.S. Quad Rugby National Championship Tournament at the Kentucky International Convention Center on Saturday. Organizers said this is the sixth year that the 24-year-old, three-day national event has been held in Louisville. Continue Reading »

Ramps are typically built in order to improve home accessibility for people who can’t use stairs or need a gentler, less stressful way to enter or leave their home. A successful home accessibility project requires careful planning in order to be certain that the ramp meets the home occupant’s needs, complies with local building requirements, is safe and sturdy, and is safe for use in all types of weather.

Consider the following before you begin the design and construction of a wheelchair ramp. Questions such as:

• Who’s the primary user?
• What type of assistive device does the person use (cane, crutches, walker, manual or electric wheelchair)
• Will the person’s abilities change?
• What are the local zoning requirements?

These are just a few of the questions that must be addressed before you begin your project. The following information should guide you in this process. Continue Reading »

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These tables were designed for injured people to stretch, roll and attain general well-being.

Many uses: physical therapy, massage, yoga, pilates, exercise, stretching and more…

These custom tables are beautifully hand-crafted and as a result become the focal point of any room.

There are endless design-choices available, including: height, width and length of table; species and finish of wood; density and color of foam top; and storage configuration. All of our tables come with wheels for easy movement. Continue Reading »

Imagine moving an object by simply thinking about that action. It’s not telepathy, but a recent development by researchers might give hope to patients with paralysis due to spinal cord injuries. Continue Reading »

Locomotor therapy is being used to strengthen the muscles of people with spinal cord injuries, experts hope that it has the potential to bring back muscle movement.

April 22, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ — A former hockey player paralyzed from a diving accident has the opportunity to run again once a week thanks to a revolutionary spinal cord injury treatment. Another woman was told she would never walk again. Now she is using a walker at her home and riding a stationary bicycle three times per week. Continue Reading »

Scientists at Northwestern University in Chicago, with funding from the National Institutes of Health, have successfully bypassed the spinal cord and restored fine motor control to paralyzed limbs using a brain-computer interface.

The researchers have created a neuroprosthesis that combines a brain-computer interface (BCI) that’s wired directly into 100 neurons in the motor cortex of the subject, and a functional electrical stimulation (FES) device that’s wired into the muscles of the subject’s arm. When the subject tries to move his arm or hand, that cluster of around 100 neurons activates, creating a stream of data which can then be read and analyzed by the BCI to predict what muscles the subject is trying to move, and with what level of force. This interpreted data is passed to the FES, which then triggers the right muscles to perform the desired movement. Continue Reading »

For those whose arms as well as legs are paralyzed by spinal cord injury, no skill is more broadly useful to regain than the ability to grasp and move objects. Researchers reporting in Nature magazine this week say they have devised a new way to get a patient’s hand to grasp a greater range of objects:  by playing recorded brain commands directly to muscle.

For the paralyzed, the technique could provide brain signals a way around the broken spinal cord and allow hand movements more finely tuned to different tasks. Continue Reading »

Sawyer Rosenstein was a 12-year-old middle school student in Ramsey when a punch to his stomach by a bully ended his dreams of becoming an actor and put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

It wasn’t the first time Sawyer said he had been victimized. In fact, he documented his troubles in emails to school officials, pleading with them for help. “I would like to let you know that the bullying has increased,” he wrote to his guidance counselor at the Eric Smith Middle School, adding, “I would like to figure out some coping mechanisms to deal with these situations, and I would just like to put this on file so if something happens again, we can show that there was past bullying situations.”

That email was sent on Feb. 9, 2006. Three months later, the punch that brought him to his knees would cause a clot in a major artery that supplies blood to his spine, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Continue Reading »

Brief introduction of our upcoming “Life After Injury” Podcast Series. Continue Reading »