This is where the staff of the Reeve Foundation is sharing up-to-the-minute information and putting some context around the news affecting the spinal cord injury and paralysis community. Not to mention insight into what's going on here at the Foundation.
Feel free to comment and offer suggestions. We'll respond.
Posted by
JLoMonday, February 28, 2011
Remember when you were little and your teachers, aunts, uncles, the mailman, just about everyone asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" That's exactly what I thought when I read the latest feature story from Reeve Foundation Information Specialist, Donna Lowich.
Donna writes Not Just a Day at the Races about her son Jeffrey's first ever trip to the horse races almost 25 years ago with his dad and where he is today.
When they arrived home late in the afternoon, both Walter and Jeffrey were grinning from ear to ear. I smiled back. "Did you guys have a good time?"
"Good? It was GREAT!" Jeffrey exclaimed, his chocolate-brown eyes shining brightly with excitement. "We were at the finish line and we saw the horses up close for all the races!"
"Wow, Jeff! I'm glad you had such a good time! What did you like best? The jockeys? The bugler?"
"I liked seeing the horses run, and guessing which ones would win. It was great!" He paused. "I helped Dad pick out the winners!"
I looked at Walter, who was nodding his head in agreement, "We spent time at the paddock area, and then we chose the horses we thought would win. Then Jeff ran all the way back to the finish line to wait for the race!"
He shook his head in amazement. "I was wrong—he was not interested in the jockeys or the silks. He went right for the finish line. And, he did help me pick who the winners were. Didn't you, Bud?"
What happened next? Find out!
Read more of Donna's stories here. (Middle left side of the page).
Janelle
Join our community.
Posted by
JLoMonday, February 28, 2011
The blue background with a white stick figure -like wheelchair image is the image everyone recognizes for universal accessibility. A Massachusetts artist thought it might be time to change that and make it more modern.
The wheelchair symbol is everywhere, one of the most recognizable icons in the world. Everyone has seen the image, but Sara Hendren believes most people have never really looked at it.
“It’s so familiar, it has the invisibility of the obvious,’’ said Hendren, who is trying to change that with a street art project that is popping up — illegally — throughout the area.
In an era when even the most mundane objects are given obsessive attention from designers, Hendren said she believes the International Symbol of Access, as it is formally known, is long overdue for a makeover. The design, which is more than 40 years old, represents dated views of persons with disabilities, she said, and lacks the life of even the most basic stick-figure pictograms, such as the pedestrian walk signal.
“The figure is static, wooden, with the squared-off geometry of machinery. The body is synonymous with the chair,’’ and creates the impression of someone who needs a push to get through the world, said the 37-year-old artist and mother of three small children who lives in Cambridge. “It is almost completely unexamined, yet it is a design with human values at stake.’’ (Photo compliments Jonathan Wiggs)
Read the rest.
Do you think the symbol should change? Join the discussion!
Janelle
Join our community.
Posted by
JLoMonday, February 28, 2011
Posted by
JLoMonday, February 28, 2011
You've heard time and time again how dangerous drinking and driving can be, Here's a story about a young man who's life drastically changed because of too much partying one night.
Brooks left a party "completely wasted," driving crazy speeds, with his childhood friend Brendon along for the ride.
Weeks later, he woke up in a hospital bed, unable to move or even breath on his own, and learned that a car crash had paralyzed him and taken Brendon's life.
Because of one bad choice, his life became a nightmare of rehabilitation and regret.
"Brendon looked up to me. We played hockey together. He dated my sister. We were planning to go to school together," Brooks says. "And then, just like that, he was dead."
He kept Brendon's parents' phone number beside his hospital bed for weeks, in anguish over what to say to them. But in the end, Brooks says it was their unconditional forgiveness that was his salvation.
"They gave me a chance to go on and lead a good life," he says.
Read the rest of Kevin's story.
Janelle
Join our community.
Posted by
JLoFriday, February 25, 2011
A few months back, I had the opportunity to visit one of the Reeve Foundation's NeuroRecovery Network Centers, Kessler Rehabilitation Institute in West Orange, NJ. I was in awe with how hard the specially-trained therapists were working with the patients. One of these patients was 19-year-old, Tony Malloy who was spinal cord injured last January.
I chatted with Tony and one of his therapists for awhile about his progress at the NRN.
Thanks to his therapies, Malloy is slowly moving away from being dependent on a wheelchair.
"I can stand using a walker," says Malloy of his current progress, "for about 20 or 30 seconds without anyone touching me in the walker. It's not something that I can do functionally yet. I can't use a walker at home, or go walking with it, but I'm moving toward that hopefully. For now I use my legs for transfers and things, but I don't stand all the way up."
Tony Malloy pictured with physical therapists, Lindsay McIntyre, Maureen Duane-Pfeiffer, and Jared Milligan.
When asked if Malloy or Milligan foresee the absence of a wheelchair anytime soon, Milligan replied, "So far that's the goal. Just keep working hard and you can achieve anything, that's what Christopher Reeve said, ‘Impossible is Nothing.' So that's how you got to think of it."
Get to know Tony more.
More on the Reeve Foundation's NeuroRecovery Network and locomotor training.
Janelle
Join our community.
Posted by
JLoFriday, February 25, 2011
Categories:
Chapter News,
Events and Workshops,
Resource Center,
Quality of Life,
Community,
General,
Team Reeve,
Multicultural Outreach,
Military,
Success Stories,
Life Rolls On,
Library
Posted by
JLoFriday, February 25, 2011
Seven-year-old Margaret Romph from St. Louis is now living with paralysis from a January 2009 car accident. Margaret is living with quadriplegia and is vent-dependent, but this young girl still has the spirit she always had.
But the fight for her life didn't end her dream to be a cheerleader alongside her older sister. Before the accident, Margaret was a cheerleader at Capitol City Cheer in Jefferson City. And although the incident dimmed her chances of a cheerleading career, it didn't dash her hopes of one day cheering again. She found the strength to be the spirited member of the team she used to be before the accident.
Last year, she received a special gift for Christmas that she'll never forget, changing everything.
"She was given one of the new uniforms for Christmas and when we gave her the uniform for Christmas she cried and said she wanted to go back out on the floor," Romph said.
From that moment, Margaret knew she wanted to cheer again alongside her older sister. Watching from the sidelines would no longer be enough. She still had passion for the sport she once loved so dearly.
Owner of Capitol City Cheer and her coach, Angi Dunham, made a routine to allow Margaret to be on stage with other members of the cheerleading squad in a cheer competition in St. Louis. As a quadriplegic, Margaret used her chin to move her power wheel chair around through her teammates' formations.
Be inspired, read the rest and watch the video.
Learn more about Margaret.
Janelle
Join our community.
Posted by
JLoFriday, February 25, 2011
Posted by
JLoWednesday, February 23, 2011
Posted by
JLoWednesday, February 23, 2011
Posted by
JLoWednesday, February 23, 2011
Having been an athlete his whole life, Danny Paltjon, 34, didn't expect his injury to come from an activity that he loved.
While playing softball on May 1, 2003, Paltjon ran to third base and ended up colliding with the third baseman. Even though the fielder was perfectly fine, Paltjon wasn't, and was rushed to Robert Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ. It was confirmed Paltjon had a C5, C6 level spinal cord injury. He was then transferred seven days later to Kessler Rehabilitation Institute in West Orange, NJ, a Reeve Foundation NeuroRecovery Network Center. He spent three months there as a patient.
"When Danny was released to go home I was actually one month pregnant with our son," explains Jackie. "That pushed even more motivation for him to get as much as he could physically because he knew there was a baby on the way."
While at Kessler, Paltjon and his wife, Jackie, 34, met Christopher Reeve. He was there making a speech. A couple of years later, the Paltjon's also met Dana Reeve at a fundraiser where she was signing her children's book Dewey Doo-it Helps Owlie Fly Again: A Musical Storybook Inspired by Christopher Reeve. "We even took a picture with her," says Jackie. "She seemed like a great person and was so nice to us."
Find out where Danny is now.
Join our community.
Posted by
JLoWednesday, February 23, 2011
Posted by
JLoTuesday, February 22, 2011
Here is the latest entry from Sam Maddox in our spinal cord injury research blog.
Here's a great piece of clinically relevant research data that was funded by a Reeve Foundation grant and published this week by Milos Popovic.
For many years Popovic, at the Toronto Rehab Institute, has been working on electrical stimulation and neuroprosthetics to improve hand grasp and walking in people with spinal cord injuries. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) systems have gotten quite sophisticated and have been in use for a number of years, even commercially. But what Popovic found is quite remarkable: after a few weeks of FES therapy on hand function, a group of incomplete quads gained meaningful voluntary hand function without further need of the stimulation. In other words, the therapy seems to have reawakened arm and hand muscles – a biological revelation.
Said Popovic (pictured): "This is a seminal paper as it shows that one can dramatically change the hand function in SCI patients using FES technology. It also goes against the notion that SCI patients have to have surgeries, tendon transfers or neuroimplants to restore hand function (which is common belief in the field). Also, this approach is cheaper, has no side effects, has no pain involved, and every physiotherapist or occupational therapist can deliver it."
Read the rest.
There's been some interesting topics discussed so far in spinal cord injury research blog, including my favorite on hypothermia and SCI.
Janelle
Join our community.
Posted by
JLoTuesday, February 22, 2011
Posted by
JLoTuesday, February 22, 2011
This past Saturday, Rutger's football player Eric LeGrand made his first public appearance since the play that left him living with a spinal cord injury in October. My love for football has drawn me to follow LeGrand's story ever since.
I tense up everytime I watch the replay of the hit, I was constantly scanning newspapers and the Internet for any updates the days following the initial injury, and most recently I was glued to my TV during his ESPN interview.
LeGrand's appearance on Saturday was no different. As I was babysitting Saturday night, I thought about how at that very moment LeGrand was showing the world he was ready to take on whatever challenges lie ahead. From The Star Ledger: (Picture compliments of Tony Kurdzuk)
Paralyzed Rutgers University football player Eric LeGrand affirmed his commitment to recovery at a fundraiser held today in his honor at the school’s Louis Brown Athletic Center.
"I’m gonna keep choppin’ and doing my rehab," said LeGrand in his first public appearance since being paralyzed in October.
When LeGrand entered the arena in his motorized wheelchair, the crowd of 3,000 gave the player, wearing jeans and a black and white zip-up jacket, a standing ovation.
"We have never stopped believing in you, Eric," an audience member yelled from the top of the arena, just as the crowd quieted.
Read the rest.
LeGrand has also resumed some of his studies at Rutgers. Using videoconferencing from his room at Kessler Rehab in West Orange, NJ, LeGrand is just as much a part of the class as other students.
John Paxton, the Rutgers University professor who teaches the Department of Africana Studies course, said LeGrand "speaks, contributes and participates" like every other student taking the class. He added that from 6:40 to 9:20 p.m. every Monday, LeGrand is able to participate in the classroom lecture while sitting in his wheelchair in front of a computer screen.
"I don't take it easy on him," Paxton said, standing outside his lecture hall prior to his class Monday night. "He's active in the class. He has a microphone (on his computer) and his computer sits up front so I can hear. He makes a point and I'll stop, and we'll get him interacting. I'm just glad with the technology being what it is that I have the opportunity to help him with his education."
Learn more about LeGrand's eagerness to learn.
I've tried to keep an ongoing discussion about LeGrand's progress. Share your thoughts here.
Janelle
Join our community.
