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From: Nancy P [mailto:nancy...@yahoo.com] Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2011 8:49 PM To: quad-list@eskimo.com Subject: [QUAD-L] Research breakthrough just announced in The Lancet Hi all -- I wanted you to be the first I shared this news with -- instead of trying to paraphrase, let me just give you a few paragraphs of detail. Rob Summers, a 25-year-old Portland, Oregon man, who was paralyzed below his chest with a C7/T1 injury as a result of a car accident in 2006, is standing and stepping with assistance, and voluntarily moving his legs for the first tim e since his injury. In this study, continual direct epidural electrical stimulation to the subject's lower spinal cord mimicks the signals his brain would normally send to initiate movement. This coupled with intense locomotor training is responsible for the subject's unprecedented functional recovery. The subject is able to stand supplying the muscular push himself and can remain standing, bearing his full weight, for up to four minutes at a time and up to an hour with periodic assistance. In addition to some functional recovery, relief from some of the secondary complications of complete spinal cord injury (for example, loss of bladder and sexual function) could be even more significant. Aided by a harness and some therapist assistance, he can make repeated stepping motions on a treadmill. He can also voluntarily move his toes, ankles, knees and hips on command. Read more about the study here - http://bit.ly/iSfKnH Best wishes to you all Nancy Nancy Purcell for the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation www.christopherreeve.org
