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Kevin Everett on Oprah
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 For the first time, Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett tells his amazing story of recovery from a spinal cord injury.
Oprah, "We're honored to introduce miracle man, Kevin Everett." Many
call it a medical miracle. Kevin Everett is walking, moving, following
a devastating injury during last season's Bills opener. Kevin
Everett, injured Bills player, "It was kind of scary just laying there.
I had some negative thoughts going on in my head."
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Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation Awards Nearly $2 Million in Individual Research Grants
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Foundation Continues Research Initiatives in Search of a Cure and Therapies for Paralysis
The Christopher and Dana Reeve
Foundation (CDRF), which is dedicated to curing spinal cord injury by funding
innovative research and improving the quality of life for people living with
paralysis through grants, information and advocacy, today announced it has
awarded $1,996,745 million to 16 laboratories through its Individual Research
Grants Program. At the forefront of molecular and cellular studies, CDRF's
Individual Research Grant Program is the Foundation's largest, most
comprehensive research initiative. The grants awarded today represent an
overall $77 million commitment to research by the Foundation since 1982.
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House would shift burden of brain-injury research
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The House passed a bill yesterday that will
shift the cost of research for spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries
to all Hoosier vehicle owners -- not just those who have motorcycles.
House Bill 1318 eliminates a controversial
$10 fee that lawmakers added to motorcycle registrations last year, a
move that irritated bikers across the state.
Rep. Dan Leonard, R-Huntington, questioned Rep. Carolene Mays,
D-Indianapolis, yesterday about her bill that would impose a 50-cent
fee on all vehicle registrations to pay for research into brain and
spinal cord injuries.
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Kevin Everett steps into the spotlight in new book 'Standing Tall'
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 Drafted by the Buffalo Bills as a passcatching tight end, Kevin
Everett’s career stats would seem disappointing: two catches for
three yards.
But Everett has already entered the pantheon of
National Football League heroes for doing what most athletes take for
granted – walking. On Oct. 9, 2007, one month after falling
paralyzed to the Ralph Wilson Stadium turf after a tackle, he took a
few steps in a Houston rehabilitation center. Today, Everett
makes his post-football television debut on “Oprah” to talk
about his injury and recovery. “Standing Tall: The Kevin Everett
Story,” a book about his ordeal, goes on sale Friday. The
slim 214-page soft-cover book confirms what Buffalo Bills fans and
other Everett admirers already knew: The kid from Port Arthur, Texas,
is a fine young man who has won the respect of athletic opponents on
the field and medical professionals during his rehabilitation.
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Helping Hands teaches Needham students about safety, with the help of a monkey
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 Marie Waitkevich is trying to talk seriously about the importance of
wearing a helmet, but a small monkey keeps banging a walnut on the
table behind her, eliciting shrieks of laughter from her audience.“Not
all monkeys eat walnuts this way,” she told her elementary school
audience. “Lindsay is particularly good at opening them up.” Lindsay,
a 14-year-old helper monkey, is nearly ready to graduate from Monkey
College, where she is being trained to serve as a personal attendant
for a severely disabled recipient. She took a break from her studies
last week to visit the Eliot School to help Waitkevich, a veterinarian
technician at Helping Hands, teach students about disabilities.
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After Spinal Cord Injury, Ohio State Program Gives Hope
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 An innovative training device
being used at The Ohio State University Medical Center may lead to
improved mobility and quality of life for people with spinal cord
injuries.
Physicians are looking at the use of bodyweight support and treadmill
therapy, known as locomotor training, to help patients improve various
skills after suffering incomplete paralysis. The unique therapy, often
associated with the rehabilitation regimen used by the late actor
Christopher Reeve, is only available at a handful of hospitals around
the country.
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Sex Life Still Alive for Physically Challenged
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Sexuality does not end when a
person experiences the effects of a spinal cord injury. Issues of meeting
potential partners, building self confidences and enhancing sexual function
are an essential part of adjusting to life after an injury. Many physical and
emotional changes take place during the rehabilitation process and the matter
of being able to perform sexually usually becomes an issue of importance. The
truth is that as time passes, those with spinal cord injury find a greater
appreciation for sexuality and many will move on to find greater emotional
closeness with their partner.
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Determined to Recover
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 Every once in a while, a story reaches out and
inexplicably grabs a hold of you. I was surfing the 2008 mountain bike
models at Giant's site I came across a link called Heart of a Champion. I followed the link and it led me to a blog detailing the great recovery efforts that Tara Llanes is making against spinal cord injuries she sustained during the Jeep King of the Mountain series on September 1st, 2007.
On Saturday September 1, 2007, Tara had a
horrible crash at the Jeep King of the Mountain series finale in Beaver
Creek Colorado. During a semi-final heat with the eventual race winner,
Jill Kintner, Tara entered the second to last straight on the course
and hit an obstacle that sent her over the handlebars, coming down hard
on her head then back. She was rushed to Vail Valley Medical Center,
and then airlifted to Denver Health Medical Center where a specialty
spinal cord team worked on her for seven hours over Saturday night.
Tara's crash caused a fracture to the C7 and L1 vertebra and damaged
her spinal cord, resulting in a below-the-waist paralysis, a condition
her surgeons say is most likely permanent.
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Medical Marvel
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Doctors can't explain why Pat Rummerfield is able to run marathons and
race cars. Even so, there are scores of quadriplegics who long to
follow in his footsteps.
Beckman broke his neck in an Ocean City
diving accident during the summer of 2003. In an instant, he became a
quadriplegic. Catapulted into a wheelchair at age 19, he was told
that's where he'd forever remain. Yet here he is on a March morning
almost four years later walking in water, which for him seems almost as
remarkable as dancing upon it. Rummerfield, a senior staff member
at the spinal cord center, watches Beckman struggle to keep his legs
moving. To take Beckman's mind off his aching muscles, Rummerfield asks
about a ski trip Beckman recently took with a group of disabled
athletes.
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Paralyzed woman helps raise funds for research
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A Cumberland woman who sustained a paralyzing spinal cord injury six
years ago is using her abilities to help deal with her disability.
Jyl and Donnie Waters founded the Spinal Cord
Organization for Research and Enrichment following Jyl's 2002 fall from
a forklift. The Iowa-based organization recently donated $20,000 to the
International Center for Spinal Cord Injury at the Kennedy Krieger
Institute in Baltimore, Md.
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January 2008
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