The Reeve Foundation's NeuroRecovery Network is by far one of my personal favorite programs we have. It's exciting, unique, and gives individuals back their ability to walk and much more.

One of these individuals is Stanley Yoo. Yoo (pictured center) was spinal cord injured in November 2008 after he landed on his neck on a trampoline warming up for a gymnastics class.  At that time, Yoo was a resident doctor in Temple University's Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation program (PM&R) in Philadelphia, PA. As a doctor, he knew all too well what had happened.

Having spent four months in therapy, Yoo is more aware than ever that what would be seemingly small victories to everyone else, are immeasurable to the actual patient. "Function is determined by how much you put into it," says Yoo. "Going from doing flips in the air to pain in my back when I walk hardly makes you feel like yourself. It's about changing focus, reinventing yourself."

"Any victory, big or small, keeps alive that hope for SCI patients that there will one day be a cure," explains Yoo. "Every advance in pharmacology, mechanical technology, stem cell therapy, while they might not offer a complete cure, will undoubtedly have huge implications in the individual lives of spinal cord injured patients."

To really understand the life of a someone living with a spinal cord injury, Yoo says, "I would urge any non-spinal cord injured individual to take a minute to reflect on all the things that so many of us take for granted -- the ability to feel a loved one's touch, to have control over your own bowel and bladder, to move your body freely, to stand up and walk, to cough when you have to, or even simply to breath on your own. Then, imagine losing any one of those things and ask what you wouldn't do to get that back. SCI patients often have several of these deficits, sometimes all, and occasionally even more. So, while a complete cure might be a long time coming, simply improving some of the sequels of the disease is, and always will be, progress worth making."

Read about Yoo's NRN experience and his journey to walking again.

Janelle

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This Making a Difference  blog is all about how we here at the Reeve Foundation make a difference in the lives of those living with paralysis. Our NeuroRecovery Network (NRN) Program helped one person so much, he decided to get a tattoo of our logo to represent just how grateful he is to be able to walk again from being part of the NRN.

Brad Burns was injured in May 2008 in an automobile accident. As many of our community members know, life changes in an instant. So after a few weeks of having feelings of anguish, Brad decided he wasn't going to let what happened to him so quickly control the rest of his life.

"It was an absolute amazing opportunity to get better," says Burns. "It's definitely the hardest thing in my life I have gone through, but definitely worth it."

Jeff Buehner, Burns' therapist at the NRN, describes Burns' function during his first session. "He was dependent on a power wheelchair," explains Buehner. "He had had minimal or no use of his right upper extremity; his left arm was starting to get mobility back, but limited; his hand function was pretty much non existent, with some gross upper extremity movement in his left arm. He had no trunk control whatsoever. During his first evaluation, it took the maximum assistance of three people to get him into a standing position. And it was a pretty ugly looking stand, as you can imagine!"

Burns set a goal to be walking within a few years, but it happened within six weeks of being at the NRN. He started with a platform walker. Burns describes the platform walker as, "essentially two attachments, one on either side of the walker, which allowed me to rest my forearms on it because I wasn't strong enough to grab with my hands and support my upper body."

Get to know Brad.

More on the NRN.

Janelle
 

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Chris Dynan is a 15-year-old with more motivation than your average teenager. Last August, Dynan broke his neck in an ATV accident. Months later, Dynan is a patient at Courage Center in Minnesota, a Reeve Foundation NeuroRecovery Network (NRN) Center, relearning how to walk. Specially-trained therapists work muscles in his legs as he is suspended in a harness over a treadmill. This is known as locomotor training.

Dynan's mom looks up her son and his courage.

“He’s an amazing kid,” said his mother Karie Dynan. “He has the best attitude. He’s highly motivated. He’s my hero.”  

Watch the video from CBS and you'll see why.

More on Courage Center. 

The way in which the NRN delivers locomotor training (LT) is based on current knowledge of how the brain and spinal cord control stepping and how the nervous system learns a motor skill. LT is delivered in a systematic and standardized way across all NRN centers using three primary component parts:

1. Step Training using Body Weight Support on a Treadmill (BWST) and manual assistance

2. Over-Ground Walking Training

3. Community Ambulation Training

Learn more about our NeuroRecovery Network program.

Janelle

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