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New clinic opens at the Temple VA hospital
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Military veterans with spinal cord injuries have a new place to get the specialized help they need in Central Texas. The
VA Hospital in Temple opened a new clinic Monday morning. More and more
veterans are finding the care they need at the VA Hospital in Temple.
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Trauma cases strain hospitals
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State's brain, spinal patients can't find rehab
Spinal cord and brain injury patients routinely are
staying at hospitals for weeks after they are ready to go to
rehabilitation, causing trauma centers to run at capacity and ring up
costly bills. Trauma patients are surviving in
cases when they might not have a few years ago, and there is a shortage
of rehabilitation centers to treat them. The situation ends up
affecting everyone who needs medical care.
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Cooling Therapy Helps NFL Player Overcome Paralysis
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 An experimental treatment – inducing hypothermia –
has been helping a professional football player make a remarkable
recovery from a paralyzing injury. Cooling therapy, also being used in
Triangle hospitals, has made the recovery possible.
Buffalo Bills
tight end Kevin Everett sustained a severe spinal cord injury in the
season opener against Denver on Sept. 9. The third and fourth vertebrae
in his neck were fractured, leaving him paralyzed. "Not only do
you wonder if they're ever going to walk again, you wonder if they'll
actually going to be able to survive the injury," said Dr. Jeffrey
Goldstein, with the New York University Hospital for Joint Disease.
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Spine surgery: Timing matters!
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 About 300,000 Americans are in
wheelchairs due to spinal cord injuries. Many patients will recover at
least some function in their fingers, toes, hands and limbs after
injury, but new research shows there may be a way for them to recover
even more.
Bruce Brady nearly died last March when he accidentally skied into a cedar fence. “At
that point there, I could not feel anything,” he said. “I
couldn’t move my head. I could not wiggle my toes, wiggle my
fingers.” The accident left Brady paralyzed from the neck down. “I couldn’t feel anything, anywhere,” he continued.
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In poor countries, spinal injury still means death
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 A 6-year-old Palestinian girl may be
about to experience at first hand the gulf between care of
spinal injuries in the rich world and developing countries.
An Israeli missile strike on a militant leader in the Gaza
Strip in May last year killed most of Maria Amin's family and
wrecked her spinal cord so high up that she lost not only the
use of all limbs, but also the ability to breathe for herself.
Somehow, the Palestinians kept Maria alive long enough to
get her to Israel's renowned hospitals.
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Violence taxes Baghdad's spinal injury hospital
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 Some patients wait a year to get only such care in the city
Mohammed Abdul Hussein moans as he tries to shift his limp body across a
bed in a stultifyingly hot hospital room. The 26-year-old police officer, who
was shot by an unknown assailant while riding home on a motorcycle, is a
paraplegic.
Down the corridor, 12-year-old Saddam Radi, who lost the use of his legs
after a bullet tore through his torso during a firefight, struggles to raise
his arms in a therapy session. Nearby, Jassem Tharaya, 51, a retired civil
servant, repeatedly pulls a cord that works the muscles in his right arm. He
has no use of his legs.
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Patients teaching doctor history of war
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At Walter Reed, he treats amputees, soldiers with brain and spinal injuries from battles in Iraq and Afghanistan
When the Army doctor walked into the musty hospital room, the
patient, strapped in a neck brace, eyed his uniform, looking for the
patch on the right shoulder that would signify that the doctor, too,
had been in combat.
But Dr. Brandon Goff doesn't have one. He's never been to war. War comes to him.
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Feingold, Kohl, Moore Push for New Zablocki Spinal Cord Injury Unit
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Washington, D.C. –
U.S. Senators Russ Feingold
and Herb Kohl and Representative Gwen Moore are pushing for construction to
begin on the new spinal cord injury (SCI) unit at Zablocki Medical Center in Milwaukee. In a letter to the Secretary
of Veterans Affairs, Jim Nicholson, the members of Congress reiterated their
concerns that the existing SCI unit at Zablocki does not meet current standards
of the Joint Commission, the organization which accredits hospitals, and
requested that construction on the new unit begin as soon as
possible.
"Our country can never fully
repay our veterans for the sacrifices they have made for their country, but we
must do all we can to ensure they receive the best medical care possible,"
Feingold said. "A new SCI unit is critical for veterans in Wisconsin and throughout the Midwest and its construction is long overdue."
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FOCUS ON INDEPENDENCE GIVES SIGHT TO QUADRIPLEGICS
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Two well
known U.S. Refractive Surgeons have teamed up to launch Focus On
Independence in which eye surgeons provide free LASIK or vision
correction surgery for quadriplegics. Robert K. Maloney of Los Angeles
and Daniel Durrie of Kansas City have enlisted up to 40 surgeons around
the country in the program which is intended for patients over the age
of 18 who have suffered spinal cord injury and have lost the use of
their hands and/or arms, making it difficult or impossible to take off
their glasses or contacts without assistance.
“For the quadriplegic patient, glasses can be a constant
source of aggravation,” said Dr. Maloney. “The Focus on
Independence program is designed to make the day-to-day life easier for
the person.”
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Soothing words ease rough times
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It got a little rough under the basket when
the Haines Lady Glacier Bears played the Metlakatla Miss Chiefs
Saturday night. A visiting player fell and didn't get up. The refs
stopped the game, and the players backed away while the coaches knelt
beside the girl. They spoke quietly. She was crying. The gym got still.
I scanned the stands for volunteer EMTs.
There were a handful at the game, and they were all paying attention,
waiting for a nod from the coaches. When it came, they walked down
quickly and with purpose. Dave Gross was on the phone, no doubt calling
an ambulance. Vince Hansen knelt next to the girl. Alan Heinrich left
his place at scorekeeper's table and joined them on the court.
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