--part0_896975617_boundary
Content-ID: <0_896975617(AT)inet_out.mail.aol.com.1>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
of interest
--part0_896975617_boundary
Content-ID: <0_896975617(AT)inet_out.mail.aol.com.2>
Content-type: message/rfc822
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
Content-disposition: inline
Return-Path: <scipin-l(AT)health.state.ny.us>
Received: from relay16.mx.aol.com (relay16.mail.aol.com [172.31.106.72]) by
air16.mail.aol.com (v43.25) with SMTP; Thu, 04 Jun 1998 11:33:38
-0400
Received: from gate1.health.state.ny.us (gate.health.state.ny.us
[192.135.176.62])
by relay16.mx.aol.com (8.8.5/8.8.5/AOL-4.0.0)
with SMTP id LAA06357;
Thu, 4 Jun 1998 11:33:29 -0400 (EDT)
Received: by gate1.health.state.ny.us id AA26379
(InterLock SMTP Gateway 3.0); Thu, 4 Jun 1998 11:29:44 -0400
Message-Id: <199806041529.AA26379(AT)gate1.health.state.ny.us>
Received: by gate1.health.state.ny.us (Internal Mail Agent-2);
Thu, 4 Jun 1998 11:29:44 -0400
Received: by gate1.health.state.ny.us (Internal Mail Agent-1);
Thu, 4 Jun 1998 11:29:44 -0400
Date: Thu, 28 May 1998 18:34:55 -0400
Reply-To: Spinal Cord Injury Peer Net <scipin-l(AT)health.state.ny.us>
Sender: Spinal Cord Injury Peer Net <scipin-l(AT)health.state.ny.us>
From: Spinal Cord Injury Peer Net <scipin-l(AT)health.state.ny.us>
X-From: Kim and Eddie Hughes <keh1(AT)BRIGHT.NET>
Subject: Fw: SCI RESEARCH FUNDING
X-To: scipin-l(AT)albnydh2.health.state.ny.us
To: Multiple recipients of list SCIPIN-L <scipin-l(AT)health.state.ny.us>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
Here's a copy of the letter I sent to the President re: spinal cord
research.
----------
> From: Kim and Eddie Hughes <keh1(AT)bright.net>
> To: president(AT)whitehouse.gov
> Subject: Fw: SCI RESEARCH FUNDING
> Date: Thursday, May 28, 1998 12:20 AM
> Dear Mr. President,
> I am writing in response to a recent announcement that the U.S. has a
projected budget surplus of 39 billion dollars and you would like to use
this for Social Security. I agree with you 100%. Spending our surplus on
spinal cord injury research is the logical solution to reduce social
security expenses.
My brother, Jason, recently suffered a spinal cord injury leaving him a
quadraplegic. Diseases and disabilities have caused more unnecessary death
and pain and suffering than all the wars of this century combined. Spinal
cord injury is a very costly condition. Research is the only way to
improve health care and truly reduce its costs. Research costs are only a
tiny fraction of health care costs.
Dr. Wise Young, M.D., Ph.D., stated, "Several polls of the nation have
shown that 75% of all people in the United States would favor spending more
on biomedical research. If everybody in this country voted to spend $1 of
their taxes on spinal cord injury research, this would increase current
spinal cord research ($50 million) by 5 times. Such an expenditure has the
potential of restoring function to 250,000 people who are in wheelchairs
today. Even if research were to halve the costs of spinal cord injury care
that the U.S. government is paying, it would save $2.5 billion per year or
$10 of taxes per person per year."
Everyone who is already paralyzed will benefit as well as those who will
break their neck or back in the future. This will not only benefit those
in the United States, but those injured world-wide.
The government and people benefit from spinal cord injury research. The
funds will employ researchers in the states, their universities and
companies and will then lead to increased products. These therapies will
be important and useful to many who have other neurological disorders, head
injury, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and many, many
more. Such therapies will we used throughout the world.
Dr. Lars Olson, a professor of neurobiology, reported on his repair of
the most drastic type of injury. He cut the cord completely. He then
placed parallel lengths of peripheral nerve across the gap, embedded in a
gel
containing factors favorable to fiber growth. Despite the severity of this
injury, he found considerable anatomical evidence of regeneration and even
functional recovery.
Dr. Raisman's work in the UK and Dr. Jerry Silver's in Cleveland, OH has
proved that re-growing nerve fibers can be encouraged to grow through white
matter tracts in the spinal cord.
This is no doubt the most exciting time so far in the history of spinal
research. It is easy to under-estimate the amount of work that this
involves, not only in the laboratories and the clinics, but also in raising
the money to pay for it. Dr. Young stated that the work was so
discouraging that "there may be just 20 labs in the U.S. working on spinal
cord injury, compared to AIDS where there are literally thousands of labs
working on the problem."
I urge you to consider these points. Don't you think that this would be
a worthwhile investment? I would very much like to hear your viewpoint on
this issue and your plans for the future of the some 250,000 individuals
confined to a wheelchair. My e-mail address is: keh1(AT)bright.net and my
mailing address is: 668 N. High Street, Chillicothe, OH 45601.
Thank you very much for your time.
With deepest appreciation,
Kim Hughes
--part0_896975617_boundary--