Your Spinal Cord is important because without a spinal cord your brain and your body couldn't communicate with each other.

The spinal cord is the pathway for impulses from the body to the brain, and from the brain to the body. These impulses are different signals our brain sends and receives from our bodies.

The effects of Spinal Cord Injury depend on the type of injury and the level of the injury. SCI can be divided into two types of injury - complete and incomplete. A complete injury means that there is no function below the level of the injury; no sensation and no voluntary movement. Both sides of the body are equally affected. An incomplete injury means that there is some functioning below the primary level of the injury. A person with an incomplete injury may be able to move one limb more than another, may be able to feel parts of the body that cannot be moved, or may have more functioning on one side of the body than the other. With the advances in acute treatment of SCI, incomplete injuries are becoming more common.