Spinal cord injury victims suffer the most damaging and permanent injuries, often resulting in paralysis and immobility. New research and treatments signals the potential for recovery and hope for patients and their loved ones. The devastating consequences of a spinal cord injury can leave a victim unable to care for their families and themselves and can significantly alter the quality of life.
Car accidents, motorcycle accidents, and trucking accidents leave thousands of victims suffering from spinal cord injuries, in Miami, Florida and nationwide. While therapies do not guarantee complete mobility, they can restore health and hope for victims.
New, groundbreaking treatments, including locomotor therapies for spinal cord injury victims, are exploring options for rehabilitation and exercise. Rather than leaving the injured bedridden, doctors and therapists are helping to keep patients in shape for the day when an effective and viable treatment is available.
Successfully getting patients the ability to move is not only hopeful for future mobility, it also helps build muscle and increases the functionality of the immune system. Exercise therapies for those who are paraplegics gained popularity following the Christopher Reeve accident, who used his celebrity status to encourage doctors to focus on recovery.
In the past, doctors saw that many patients who were injured were overcome with despair, waiting for a recovery that never came. Health care professionals did not want to unfairly raise the hopes of victims. Now, doctors want to balance reality with motivation, hoping that new treatments and therapies will both increase the physical well-being of patients and prepare them for a future that may have mobility treatments.
Source: Scripps News, “New treatments give spinal injury patients hope,” Jeremy Olson, March 22, 2012