Articles Posted in Spinal Cord Injury

FOXBOROUGH, Mass.–Dec. 2, 2005 Remember “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “The Bionic Woman” TV shows in the 1970’s? Those science fiction concepts are just a little closer to reality today. On a Today Show feature titled “Mind-moving Machines to Help the Disabled.” Katie Couric presented the story of Matthew Nagle, the first participant in…

Researchers at Geron Corporationof Menlo Park, California, want to begin the first testing embryonic stem cell therapy in humans with damaged spinal cords. If the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gives its OK and the injections help, it could bring hope to many of the more than 250,000 people in this country with spinal disabilities.…

Purdue University researchers may have isolated the substance most responsible for the tissue damage that follows initial spinal cord injury, a discovery that could also improve treatments for a host of other neurodegenerative conditions. A research team led by Riyi Shi (REE-yee SHEE) has found that a chemical called acrolein, a known carcinogen, is present…

Purdue University scientists have identified acrolein as a toxin that appears in spinal tissue after spinal cord trauma, and may play a role in causing paralysis. They hope that further research will lead to methods for detoxifying acrolein after SCI, and thereby preventing or lessening the resulting paralysis. See news release below. The Shigley Law…

Insurance executives and corporate risk managers know that family caregivers, caring for catastrophically injured loved ones, eventually will be ground down to exhaustion. And they know a wrongful death claim has far less value and jury appeal than a catastrophic injury claim, so if they can delay long enough they may save millions. Therefore, in…

Future repairs of injured spinal cord and other nerves could be accomplished with the aid of stem cells grown in self-assembling three-dimensional biodegradable scaffolds of nanofibers. The fibers, delivered in liquid form, self-assemble into a scaffold within seconds of making contact with the electrically charged ions surrounding cells. An amino acid in the fibers helps…

As anyone familiar with the care of quadriplegics can readily attest, bedsores (decubitus ulcers) are a common complication of paralysis. A study conducted by NYU School of Medicine researchers, in collaboration with the Wound Healing Program at Columbia University, sheds new light on the molecular mechanisms underlying the development of chronic wounds, including bedsores. Published…

Brooke Ellison was only eleven when a car hit her, leaving her a vent-dependent quadriplegic. In a tremendous demonstration of grit and determination, she went on to graduate from Harvard with honors. Now the story of her life has been made into a move, directed by the late Christopher Reeve, The Brooke Ellison Story, is…

Most spinal cord injuries begin with a sudden, traumatic blow to the spine that fractures or dislocates vertebrae. The damage begins at the moment of injury when displaced bone fragments, disc material, or ligaments bruise or tear into spinal cord tissue. Most injuries to the spinal cord do not completely sever it. Instead, an injury…

Shepherd Center in Atlanta is a treatment site for Proneuron’s Phase II trial of ProCord, involving implantation of an autologous spinal cellular product. See press release below. The Shigley Law Firm represents plaintiffs in wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases statewide in Georgia, and in other states subject to the multijurisdictional practice and pro hac…