Superman has died. Actor Chris-topher Reeve sadly has passed on after almost 10 years of living with SCI (Spinal Cord Injury). The work he has done to help cure spinal-cord paralysis should continue to grow and live on forever.
Reeve was thrown from his horse and broke his neck during an equestrian competition in May 1995. He suffered one of the most severe spinal injuries possible.
The spinal cord is the big central nerve column that runs from the brain down the center of the spine. These nerves carry sensation and control muscular movement.
Injury to the spinal column affects nerves from the point of injury on downward. What happens is that the vertebra breaks or is pushed out of place, pinching or damaging the spinal cord.
Injuries are classed in two degrees: Complete, where all nerve signals are blocked, and Incomplete, where there is some sensation and muscle control below the injury.
The spine is divided into four sections:
* The cervical spine controls the head, neck, diaphragm and breathing. Injury to the cervical spine usually results in high quadriplegia.
* Next is the thoracic spine, which controls shoulders, arms, wrists, hands, chest muscles and abdominal muscles. Injury to the thoracic spine generally results in low quadriplegia.
* The lumbar spine comes next, and this section controls the leg muscles. Injury to the lumbar spine usually brings on high paraplegia.
* The final spinal section is the sacral spine, which controls bowel, bladder and sexual functions. Injury to the sacral spine usually results in low paraplegia.
Each of the vertebrae is identified with both a letter and a number in order to allow both the medical staff and later the patients themselves a shorthand in which to precisely identify the point of injury.
A person in a wheelchair, for instance, retaining full arm and hand strength could be an "L3 Complete."
It's a code we SCI patients use when we talk to each other.
Reeve was a C1 Incomplete. With such a high injury, a few decades ago the actor wouldn't have been given any hope of any kind of recovery.
Reeve, however, championed the latest in cut-ting-edge research into spinal-cord injury and offered himself up as a guinea pig for new therapies.
He vowed that one day he would walk again.
Unfortunately, he never did. Yet his dream is now a plausible one for the thousands of others who are paralyzed.
"The biggest hope," says Dr. Jack Ziegler, president of the Ameri- can Spinal Injury Association, "is in biological research to allow the spinal cord to heal itself and even regenerate. That's just over the ho-rizon - but closer than ever before. Most people feel within the next 10 to 15 years."
Reeve lobbied tirelessly for spinal-cord research after his own injury in 1995. A cure will come in our lifetime, with a little more money spent on it (instead of on the war in Iraq).
Many hoped the cure would come in time for Reeve. "I thought it was going to happen," said Dr. Doug Kerr, a Johns Hopkins University neurologist who works with stem cells - research that Reeve ad-vocated.
"It was Star Wars science fiction, this concept of rewiring the nervous system," Kerr went on, but Reeve "thrust this field forward by leaps and bounds."
Aided by access to some of the most advanced medical care available, Reeve endured years of therapy to allow him to breathe for longer periods without a respirator while he sought a cure that would allow him to walk again.
Reeve sparked hope even in many critics when, in 2000, he was able to move his index finger. Strengthened by success, he pushed himself even harder into workouts to strength-en his legs and arms. He used electrical stimulation of his muscles, which allowed him to regain sensation in some other parts of his body.
As Reeve transformed his body, he changed into an advocate, first for better care for people with long-term disabilities, and then for science to help the 250,000 Americans who suffer paralysis.
The Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation has given $40 million to spinal-cord research since he merged it with the American Paralysis Foundation in 1999.
Some of the monies have been used for embryonic stem-cell research, a promising but contentious field of medicine that the Bush administration has restricted. Scientists think these early, all-purpose cells can be coaxed to form nerves and specialized tissues to repair a host of woes.
Reeve and fellow actor Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, have helped make stem cells a major presidential campaign issue. Kerry even mentioned Reeve during the second debate and has since praised him in other campaign appearances. "He was an inspiration to all of us," said Kerry, "and gave hope to millions of Americans who are counting on lifesaving cures that science and research can provide.
"In part because of his work, millions will one day walk again."
At John Hopkins University, research a few years ago demonstrated that stem cells could allow paralyzed mice and rats to do just that.
"This is one of the most difficult tasks that you can ask a stem cell to do: to rewire, to extend axons and to form new connections at great-er distances to restore function," Dr. Kerr said. "We're clearly getting there."
Before Chris Reeve, if someone had a spinal-cord injury, there was really not much hope. But the actor who played the Man of Steel demonstrated that there is hope and things can be done.
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