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Spinal cord injury victims get support
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Lena Schoemaker has always been
an athlete. She played varsity basketball and softball and ran cross
country at West High. A big part of her life was being active.
But a car accident in 2006 nearly took that all
away from her. She suffered a lacerated kidney and a collapsed lung and
- most life-altering of all - she was left paralyzed from the chest
down.
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Now, Aussie hope for Manjunath
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 After reading the paralysed techie's story in TOI, 33-year-old
Australian Perry Cross, who too suffered a similar injury 14 years ago, and is
paralysed neck down, decided to meet Manjunath to given him hope and boost his
morale.
It was an emotional meeting. Perry recounted his post-injury
days in hospital and Manjunath saw a glimmer of hope. In April 1994, Perry
suffered a C2 level spinal cord injury during a football match back home. After
spending more than a year in hospital, Perry was rehabilitated with the help of
latest technology and good nursing assistance.
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Fellow officers raise funds for James Poindexter
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It has been more than two years since
officer James Poindexter's tragic motorcycle accident. He
suffered a spinal cord injury that left him quadrapalegic. Now,
he's encountered another obstacle - he no longer has insurance coverage
for his medical expenses. Tonight, friends and family are pulling
support from the community with a spaghetti dinner that began this
evening. James also worked with 7News, he was the
Crimestoppers Officer when he had his accident. His fellow
officers say when James was injured, they not only lost a great officer
- they almost lost a friend. Many officers say James Poindexter
was an extraordinary officer. He made great things happen - he
carried the Crimestoppers program, he started the Citizens Patrol
Academy, he was a member of the SWAT Team...and, that just to name a
few of his accomplishments.
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Spinal cord survivors share stories
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 One minute, Jon Schuetz was riding a motorcycle under a
sunny Florida sky. The next minute, he was on the ground, crushed
against a voltage box, with the cycle on top of him.
He couldn't move.
Nathan
Blum of Schaller, Iowa, was driving a semitrailer in Plymouth County
when he reached for something and momentarily took his eyes off the
road. The truck suddenly went off the highway and into a ditch.
Blum couldn't move.
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Everett has support from Utley, Byrd, Burroughs and others
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An ill-fated tackle on Sunday plunged Kevin Everett into a hellish week
of loss. Instead of commanding his finely chiseled body, he could do
nothing with it -- until he finally moved his arms and legs late
Tuesday afternoon. Instead of exhorting his Buffalo Bills teammates in
the late stages of their game against the Denver Broncos, he struggled
to breathe on a ventilator. Instead of shooting for a breakthrough
third year in the NFL, his football career almost surely ended.
Yet amid all that loss, Everett gained one thing, even if
only he knows and appreciates it later: He joined a small fraternity of
NFL players who have also suffered severe spinal-cord injuries and now
embrace him as a brother.
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Someone to lean on
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 Living with a spinal cord injury is like
riding a roller coaster, said Nathan Walters, who suffered an injury
that left him in a wheelchair in February 2006.
One of his
occupational therapists at the Wyoming Medical Center, Nicole Mussen,
worked with Walters and realized she knew other people with spinal cord
injuries facing the same ups and downs.
"I thought, let's ride
it together," Mussen said, explaining why she decided to put together a
spinal cord injury support group for people in Wyoming.
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Luxemburg Man Feels Connection to Tiffany Pohl
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The family of a Kaukauna teen left paralyzed
after she was hit by an allegedly drunken driver says the high school
senior spoke for the first time since the accident. Tiffany Pohl is being treated at a Denver, Colorado, facility that specializes in spinal cord injuries. Pohl's
family says she spoke for about two minutes Sunday using a medical
device. She's learning to talk while taking in a breath, instead of
while exhaling like most of us are used to doing.
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Acts of kindness
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After dating for more than three years, DeShawn Seals and Chantilla Moore planned on tying the knot on Valentine's Day.
Three days before the couple were about to start their new life, Seals nearly lost his. He almost died in a Feb. 11 car crash. The Chatham man woke up the next morning in a Northwestern Memorial
Hospital ICU bed with a spinal cord injury that left him unable to move
his arms and legs. His spinal cord wasn't severed. But it was damaged
enough to mean the best case scenario would be months of
rehabilitation, learning how to use his limbs again.
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Reunion provides another healing touch
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A soft tapping at her door in Louisville's Frazier Rehab Institute last
week momentarily took patient Duanne Puckett of Shelbyville back 40
years.
Puckett, now 57, who was left a quadriplegic after a drunk hit
the car in which she was riding in 1967, is recuperating from delicate
spinal surgery to save her remaining arm and wrist movement.
In my column several weeks ago, in which she discussed her
difficult choice between risking the surgery or possibly losing the use
of her arms without surgery, she remembered the last time she was at
Frazier Rehab after learning that she would never walk again.
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Injured archer not forgotten at tournament
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The archer from Moultrie, Ga., a small town less than a four-hour drive
south of Atlanta, is missing the ASA Texas Pro/Am Championship staged
at Love Civic Center this weekend while he recovers from a spinal
injury suffered when he fell from a tree stand. The fall left Baker
paralyzed from the chest down.
For the last three months, Baker
has been at Shephard Spinal Cord Center in Atlanta, where he is
receiving rehabilitative treatment. The archer, who is credited with
helping bring the Texas Pro/Am to Paris, is expected to return to his
home Monday.
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