Imagine what it would be like after a spinal cord injury.

If your legs were totally paralyzed with no active movement, how would you get out of bed? You can’t stand up, so you would put a thin piece of wood called a sliding board underneath you and use your arms to slide your body down the board into your wheelchair. What if your spinal cord injury was at the level of your neck and your hands were totally paralyzed. How would you feed yourself? You would wear a special brace attached to your wrist that would hold the fork for you. Continue Reading »

A yearlong workshop at the Magee Rehabilitation Hospital in Philadelphia is connecting people with mobility disabilities to a growing field in need of new professionals — computer science.

It’s called Project ENABLE and pays participants to train in computer programming and related topics.

Funding comes from the National Science Foundation.

This week students are learning to design their own smartphone apps. In past workshops, they programmed robots.

Christopher O’Rourke, 23, of Gibbsboro, N.J., suffered a spinal cord injury during a 2010 motorcycle accident. He now uses a wheelchair. Continue Reading »

Syracuse, N.Y. – Jeffrey Campbell, a paralyzed quadriplegic Army veteran from Skaneateles, frequently goes to the Syracuse VA Medical Center for treatment when his multiple sclerosis flares up.

The 38-year-old was admitted Monday, making him one of the first patients in the VA’s new Spinal Cord Injury and Disorder Center, which is part of a $90 million, six-story addition.

Campbell liked what he saw.

“This part of the hospital was built for people like me,” said Campbell, who uses his head to control his electric wheelchair. “With two wars going on, there’s going to be a lot more of us.” Continue Reading »

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A medical test previously developed to measure a toxin found in tobacco smokers has been adapted to measure the same toxin in people suffering from spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis, offering a potential tool to reduce symptoms.

The toxin, called acrolein, is produced in the body after nerve cells are injured, triggering a cascade of biochemical events thought to worsen the injury’s severity. Continue Reading »

Mountain Trike

The Mountain Trike Offers riders the freedom to venture out around town or into the countryside. Whether that is to the beach, down muddy tracks, over grass or along cobbled streets, gravel driveways and even through snow. We call this All-Terrain.

With a conventional wheelchair, the smallest everyday journey or outdoors activity can seem daunting. The Mountain Trike gives riders the ability to go to places that were completely inaccessible previously, whilst maintaining the function and versatility of a standard wheelchair. Continue Reading »

Logan Seelye doesn’t like to use the word paralyzed. After suffering a life-changing injury nearly 10 years ago at a summer football camp, the 26-year-old Spanaway resident has heard enough about what he might never do again.

Logan Seelye doesn’t like to use the word paralyzed.

After suffering a life-changing injury nearly 10 years ago at a summer football camp, the 26-year-old Spanaway resident has heard enough about what he might never do again.

He cares more about what he can do — and strive to do.

“Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it,” Seelye said. Continue Reading »

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. and SHORT HILLS, N.J., June 5, 2013 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Craig Hospital and the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation are proud to announce that Craig has joined the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation NeuroRecovery Network (NRN). The NRN is a national network of leading-edge rehabilitation centers designed to provide and develop therapies to promote functional recovery and improve the health and quality of life for people living with paralysis. Funded by the Reeve Foundation through a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the NRN translates the latest scientific advances into effective, activity-based rehabilitation treatments. Continue Reading »

Queensland scientists will begin clinical trials of treatment for spinal cord injuries after discovering dramatic improvements in balance and coordination when blocking a protein.

Researchers at the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI), the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR), and the University of Melbourne showed that blocking protein EphA4 could rapidly restore the balance and limb coordination of models with spinal injuries. Continue Reading »

For most people, when they hear the word “quadriplegic,” their mind goes straight to an image of Christopher Reeve in his wheelchair. Or when they hear “spinal cord injury,” they think the worst of it is that we can’t walk.But how a body is affected and can still function despite the main nerve being down is quite something. From lesser-known secondary effects to the body’s impressive resiliency, here are seven surprising facts about spinal cord injuries. Continue Reading »

SHORT HILLS, NJ — (May 28, 2013) — The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation and Capstone National Partners are pleased to announce a $2 million grant from the United States Department of Defense (DOD) to further support the expansion of translational research to find treatments for individuals living with spinal cord injury, including servicemen and women.

The DOD awarded the two-year, peer-reviewed grant to the Reeve Foundation’s North American Clinical Trials Network (NACTN), a consortium of university hospital neurosurgical and neurorehabilitation teams to bring promising therapies into clinical trials. Continue Reading »