BrainAndSpinalCord.Org Blog
At first it sounds like the plotline to the newest family movie: injured patient receives exotic pet, friends and family express doubt, film ends with both the patient and the pet living fuller, richer lives. However, for over 150 people in the U.S. over the last 30 years, this is no story.
Helping Hands: Monkey Helpers for the Disabled is the world’s only non-profit organization that raises and trains capuchin monkeys for those living with spinal cord injuries and other mobility limitations. These monkeys provide in-home assistance, carrying out tasks like picking up dropped items and turning on lights, but the group also claims they do much more.
According to Helping Hands, this program “builds lasting relationships between monkey helpers and...
Read More »Talented artist and children’s book author, Mira Bartok, was a passenger in a stopped car when a tractor trailer ran into her vehicle. That collision caused microscopic bleeding in her brain, leading to the traumatic brain injury (TBI) that left her with memory loss (amnesia).
The National Institutes of Health explains that memory loss can prevent individuals from recalling new events, one or more past memories, or both. The health resource explains that memory loss can be present “only for specific events or for all events” and may also be partial, which means patients fail to remember only selected groups of items.
For Bartok, her memory loss includes the struggle to recall past details from her...
Read More »The Arizona news source, Azfamily.com, reports on an Arizona State University triathlete who uses a small electronic device to continue competing in the sport she loves, despite her partial paralysis.
In 2008, Allysa Seely became ill and was eventually diagnosed with chiari malformation and basilar invagination. These developmental anomalies led to the incorrect formation of the base of Seely’s skull and the top of her spine, causing her brain stem to get pushed down into her spinal column.
That abnormal development led to a type of neurological damage called dystonia in her left foot. Dystonia...
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