On Plasticity and Paraplegia Some Clinical Observations on the Ability to Recover from Severe Injury to the Spinal Cord

Two remarkable instances where paraplegia begins to be overcome by force of will and sensory awareness. Two cases are reported here of partial recovery from severe spinal cord injury involving fracture dislocations of the lower thoracic vertebrae. These are remarkable instances, since each of the two women involved had been totally and near totally paralyzed from the waist down for about ten years. The general medical view of such injury is that recovery is unlikely and is impossible after two years post injury. Medical research into recovery methods is very scanty although Brudny has reported two instances of partial success using a biofeedback approach with quadraplegics, and some research is being done now with electrical stimulation of the spinal cord. In the Soviet Union there is more research being done on how to stimulate spinal cord growth and repair. Some of this work has been reported in the popular press. The two women whose achievement is recorded here are not, however, the recipients of some new modern medical miracle. On the contrary, the achievements in recovery they made were the result primarily of their own efforts as encouraged by a group of therapist