One more miracle for Margaret

This is another in a long line of Miracles for Margaret.

Margaret Romph received her FES rehabilitation bike through insurance and can now begin an integral part of her rehabilitation in the comfort of her newly remodeled rehabilitation room.

Earlier this year, Margaret, her older sister Erin and their grandmother were involved in a serious accident, just outside of the Jefferson City city limits. Continue Reading »

Customers Experience of the 3 BerkelBike Models

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Awakening Paralyzed Limbs

Brain signals can drive arm movement in a monkey with a paralyzed arm.

A monkey with a paralyzed arm can still grasp a ball, thanks to a novel system designed to translate brain signals into complex muscle movements in real time. The research, presented at the Society for Neuroscience conference in Chicago this week, could one day allow people with spinal cord injury to control their own limbs. Continue Reading »

UCLA scientists make paralyzed rats walk again after spinal-cord injury

UCLA researchers have discovered that a combination of drugs, electrical stimulation and regular exercise can enable paralyzed rats to walk and even run again while supporting their full weight on a treadmill.

Published Nov. 20 in the online edition of Nature Neuroscience, the findings suggest that the regeneration of severed nerve fibers is not required for paraplegic rats to learn to walk again. The finding may hold implications for human rehabilitation after spinal cord injuries. Continue Reading »

Electrical nerve stimulation may relieve neuropathic pain after spinal cord injury

A new study has revealed that electrical nerve stimulation can effectively reduce neuropathic pain following a spinal cord injury.

Neuropathic pain is often difficult to relieve and usually managed with drugs such as antidepressants or anticonvulsants.

In the new study, researchers assessed the short-term effects of high- and low-frequency transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) on neuropathic pain following SCI. Continue Reading »

Lokomat CAST program Neuroxcel Spinal Cord Injury Therapy

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Hope is a river

David Estrada lost the use of his legs, but not his will. Now, at Spaulding hospital, he and other paraplegics are learning to row, strengthening body and mind as they wait for a cure.

From his office in the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Andrew Taylor’s views sweep across the Charles River, where generations of rowers have raced. So maybe it makes sense that the pursuit of science would bring the researcher from his desk to the water’s edge, in what he recently described as “a beautiful convergence.’’

Taylor is amid a grand experiment. In his third-floor laboratory, he is replicating the workouts of avid oarsmen who pound away on indoor rowing machines inside boathouses along the river. But in Taylor’s lab, there’s a key difference: His rowers are paraplegics. Continue Reading »

‘Oh my God, they are going to kill someone’

Man struggles to put life together after crash

What they remember most are the sounds.

For Evan Cronhardt, it was the sound of his life changing forever.

For Naval Academy police officer Cpl. Kelly Kuhn,it was the sound that triggered her fears.

On April 10, 2008, Cronhardt, 23, was on his way to a tanning salon when he began the usually mundane task of making a left turn in his Jeep Wrangler from eastbound Quarterfield Road to Landmark Drive in Glen Burnie. Continue Reading »

Researchers are developing devices that can help restore bodily movement

Grasping a cup of coffee and raising it to the mouth is a daily ritual most people take for granted. Yet, for those who have suffered a stroke or injury to the spinal cord, the task can be impossible to perform—until now.

Researchers and clinicians at Case Western Reserve University and partnering medical centers are developing devices that can restore movements such as grasping, standing, and even bladder control in some patients. The devices retrieve information from sensors implanted in muscles a patient can still move and indicate what type of movement the patient would like to perform.

The computer then sends out electrical signals to paralyzed muscles, instructing them to contract at the right moment. Continue Reading »

Brain-computer interface begins new clinical trial for paralysis

BOSTON Scientists at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have initiated the BrainGate2 pilot clinical trial to expand restorative neurotechnology research for some patients with paralysis. This trial expands on previous research that explores methods that may help paralyzed patients control assistive technologies.

The research, to be conducted jointly by physician researchers at MGH and neuroscientists and engineers at Brown University, has received approval from the hospital’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) to begin recruiting patients. Continue Reading »