Paraplegics gain movement with miraculous spinal chord therapy

Four paraplegics have gained movement in their lower extremities thanks to a miraculous new spinal chord therapy, researchers reported Tuesday.

Electrical stimulation has allowed these men, paralyzed from the chest down, to regain some movement in their legs.

For over two years, these patients were paralyzed, but now they can voluntarily flex their toes, ankles and knees, and the strength and precision of their movements has improved over time through intense physical rehabilitation, the report says.

"The really exciting news that has emerged from the study is that spinal cord injury may no longer mean a lifelong sentence of paralysis," Dr. Roderic Pettigrew, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, told HealthDay. "This is a substantial milestone that has been reached."

Researchers, from the University of Louisville's Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center (KSCIRC), hope this new treatment can one day help the 6 million paralyzed Americans, including the 1.3 million with spinal cord injuries.

Kent Stephenson, 26, who had been paralyzed in a 2009 motocross crash, was told he would never move his legs again. After receiving therapy for only 11 days, he proved that diagnosis wrong.

"My mom, who was in the room when they turned the stimulator on and told me, 'Pull your left leg up,' cried when I did it," Stephenson said, according to Reuters Health. "I got a little watery-eyed, too."

What's more, all of the men had been paralyzed for longer than two years. "We have shown the plasticity of the brain and the spinal cord is not limited to the first six to 12 months after the injury," study co-author Reggie Edgerton said. "It can persist for years."

"It's not a cure," clarified Dr. Barth Green, a neurosurgeon at the University of Miami, but it definitely has potential.

"The big message here is that people with spinal cord injury of the type these men had no longer need to think they have a lifelong sentence of paralysis," Pettigrew added.