The Derby City Chapter of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association Network- Serving Kentuckiana.
Message From the President
Dear Members & Friends-
Our speaker this month is Dr. Susan Harkema,,
Ph.D. Dr. Harkema is the newest faculty member to join the Department of Neurological Surgery and the Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center at the University of Louisville and she will be directing clinical research at Frazier Rehab Institute. This partnership has formed the Neuroscience Collaborative Center at Frazier Rehab Institute that will facilitate the translation of basic science into clinical applications.
Patients at Frazier Rehab Institute now have access to the latest in advanced rehab medicine at Frazier Rehab Institute with new strategies to retrain the nervous system after injury.
The work by Dr. Harkema and colleagues have resulted in the development of an intervention called
Locomotor Training for people with spinal cord injuries and other neurological disorders. Locomotor Training re-teaches the body to walk by providing appropriate sensory cues that can be recognized by the neural circuitry of the spinal cord. It has 3 components, which Dr. Harkema will discuss in her speech. A side benefit to this training is that patients experience better overall health and report better quality of life.
June's meeting will be held at 6:30 at Frazier Rehab, 10th floor dining room.
- David Allgood
Table of Contents
President's Message
.......
1
Refrigerator Calendar
.......
3
SCI Treatments Studied/Monkey Help
.......
4
For Sale
.......
5
From the Internet-ed.
'SPORT OF KINGS' HELPS FIGHT PARALYSIS By David Crary
At first glance, it looked like many of the polo games that are played among the rich and famous in Florida during the winter months, but the purpose of this particular match pointed up an irony that few could miss.
On a grass field at the International Polo Club Palm Beach recently, horses thundered back and forth while players leaned over the horses massive bodies at precipituous angles to swing their mallets at the ball.
The steeds, exhausted by their runs, were changed after every seven-minute period. Not so the players, who continued, sweating and panting, until the match was over. There were no accidents, and no injuries or falls that could paralyze, and that was fortunate, since the players wore only helmets as protective gear. However, some of those watching off the field were not so lucky. Several were in wheelchairs, victims of several accidents that had left them with spinal cord injuries.
This celebrity match was, after all, an event sponsored by the Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis,
which raises funds for the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. When the evening was over, $600,000 had been collected for the research. The irony of riding horses to raise money on behalf of people who have often been injured in equestrienne or other sporting events was not lost on the big-name participants.
“There's not a polo player who doesn't have a friend who limps or is in a wheelchair or is dead,” said Oscar-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones , fresh off the polo field after his match. “Spinal cord injury doesn't discriminate. It is in our best interest as a community to engage in community service,” He said.
John Walsh, of America's Most Wanted, still in pain from an equestrienne accident five weeks ago, in which he broke two Vertebrae and two ribs, said of that incident, “I was an inch away from a wheelchair. I was in a tournament, got launched, and was knocked out for 10 minutes. This is my first time on a horse.”
