The medical fratenity do tend to play God. Then again, particularly for
those of us not involved in research work, its so easy to think that the
limit of our knowledge is all there is.
Incidently, what Dave's wife did for him so soon after the accident is what
a Mr Des Donovan has been working on for many years with success. He
believes that you can train the transmission to go through the injury site
by bombarding the site with signals from both ends. He also believes early
intervention is very favourable.
He intervene with a diving accident quadraplegic, Kevin Hitchcock, who wrote
the book "Walk With Me". Kevin is now walking. The two of them have now set
up a non-profit company to aid SCI victims. They have a video out explaining
the technique, its worth investigating.
Des Donovan's email adress is: donovan(AT)easy.com.au
Best of luck to Dave, his wife, you and the rest of the family.
Roy
-----Original Message-----
From: Debby Kramer Martinich <debby_kramer_martinich(AT)csi.com>
To: tmic-list(AT)eskimo.com <tmic-list(AT)eskimo.com>
Date: Tuesday, 29 June 1999 12:55
Subject: [TMIC] My brother
>On Thursday, June 17, my brother Dave called 911 because he thought he was
>having a heart attack. One second, he was sitting at the computer typing
>away and then he felt a sharp pinprick between his shoulder blades. Pain
>rapidly spread around to his chest and his arms went numb. The ambulance
>came and took him to the hospital. Within a short period of time, he was
>paralyzed from the chest down - but was still in tremendous pain. The
>doctors were very good. They first ruled out an "aortic disconnect" (or
>something like that). They did an MRI, which was inconclusive, so they did
>a myelogram. They had put him on steroids right when he was brought in to
>the ER. They did back surgery on him that evening because they saw some
>calcification on his spine that they thought might be compressing and
>causing the paralysis. After the surgery, they told us he either had TM or
>had suffered a stroke to the spinal cord.
>
>By Sunday (his first father's day) he was able to slightly move a toe and
>felt pain when he got a shot in his belly. The neurologist told us that
>since he had shown early signs of improvement, his chances at recovery were
>now better than average - we were elated! He finished his course of
>steroids and was moved to a rehab hospital. We all had such high hopes at
>this point. Now the reality sets in - they tell him he needs to accept his
>paralysis and learn to live with it. They are saying the doctor should
>never have told him he had a good chance of recovery. In essence, they are
>killing his spirit. Yesterday was the lowest of the lows so far. They
>were considering putting him on an antidepressant. One nurse finally came
>in and told him he needed to be in his wheelchair so that his body could
>remember what it is supposed to do - i.e. sit up. He sat in his chair for
>4.5 hours. When he got back in bed, his wife got him to close his eyes and
>just try to wiggle his toes. HE DID IT!! Then he was able to move both of
>his kneecaps. Then he was able to turn his foot and leg inward from his
>hip. He has a renewed outlook on things. Once again, he feels he will be
>able to get better if only he works hard at it.
>
>My question is, are rehab hospitals required to be so negative? What's the
>point? Why try and crush someone's spirits when they are already so down?
> My brother knows there is a chance he won't improve any more than he
>already has, but why on earth should he stop trying to improve? Any
>responses will be appreciated.
>
>Take care, my prayers and thoughts are with all of you,
>Debby
>