Posted on 12/03/2005 12:58:28 PM PST by wagglebee
A jump into a swimming pool in 2003 changed Travis Robinson's life forever.
Somewhere between a belly flop and a tuck, Robinson, then 17, hit the pool in such a way that he injured his spinal cord. He now is paralyzed from the neck down.
But in January, he hopes another moment will change his life: surgery.
Robinson will fly to Portugal to get a breakthrough surgery at the Hospital Egas Moniz. In the procedure, the scar tissue that surrounds his spinal cord will be removed. Doctors will take tissue that contains stem cells from his sinuses and implant it where the scar tissue was removed.
Robinson will stay in Portugal for two weeks before flying back to Oregon to finish his recovery.
Then, the rehabilitation begins at Project Walk in Carlsbad, Calif. Robinson will receive intensive therapy three to five hours per day, three days per week. For as long as it takes.
"It just depends on how long we can keep enough money to do it, and as long as I keep improving," Robinson said.
The second-year student at Western Oregon University plans to take a sabbatical during the winter semester and possibly longer to work on his rehabilitation.
Project Walk, Robinson said, offers a different kind of therapy. "Not rehab in the sense of getting along with your life and being handicapped, but trying to get back where you were."
Right now, though, the family is focused on getting everything ready for surgery and raising the estimated $90,000 cost for surgery and rehabilitation.
Robinson's mother, Ann Carr, lives in Independence and works in Salem. She is using a Web site based in Salem, helptraviswalk.org, to help raise money for the recovery.
Robinson's father, John "Jocko" Robinson, is a diver in Westchester, Calif. His shop, Dive N' Surf, has been a key part of the family's fundraising effort. He is using a California-based Web site, helptravis.org, to raise money. The sites are identical. More than $94,000 has been raised.
The family also sells bright, royal-blue "Inspire Hope, Help Travis" bracelets, which cost $5.
Robinson's rehabilitation process that could take as long as two years.
"Ultimately, if everything went perfectly, I would gain everything back. But even if I got full use of my hands back, it would completely change my life," he said.
Some of the Portuguese patients who have undergone the surgery have been able to move their legs or walk with a walker. Several others have regained bladder control.
"Whatever he gets back will give him so much more freedom," Carr said.
Stem-cell research is a politically charged issue and has been linked to the abortion debate. Some researchers elsewhere are using stem cells from frozen embryos, but a U.S. policy established by the White House has limited that research to existing stem-cell lines.
Robinson said he has dealt with misconceptions about the kind of surgery he is scheduled.
"Not all stem cells come from an aborted fetus," he said.
Robinson said he is hopeful of the outcome.
"I just don't think people understand how life gets so complicated after something like this," he said. "It's not just difficult for me, but my entire family."
Robinson said he has dealt with misconceptions about the kind of surgery he is scheduled.
"Not all stem cells come from an aborted fetus," he said.
The media would prefer that the only "controversy" over stem cells involves embryonic stem cells. They also prefer to play down the advances that have come from adult stem cells and umbilical cord stem cells.
Ping.
California's multi billion dollar stem cell research initiative mandates that only stem cells from aborted fetuses be used. So even if adult (ethical) stem cells prove more effective and practical, California is still forced by law to keep using aborted fetuses...
Prayers for the young man.
He'll be running by cold and flu season.
After this surgery a "sinus Headache" could be a real "Pain in the Neck"
Laws can be changed, and hopefully they will be changed when people find out the stem cells can be harvested from the nose!
Oh I hope and pray it works for him and all the others who are paralyzed.
I often wonder how common this sort of injury is. I know one person from my high school graduating class that was injured in the exact same way, and others I've talked to have similar stories.
If this works, it will be nothing to sneeze at . . .
Fetal stem cells are the least successful of all the different types of stem cells used in experimentation.
It's a myth started and promoted by the pro-abortion profiteers.
Ping!
How will people find out when the MSM doesn't want us to know?
Last I heard, there are at least 45 conditions that have been successfully treated with adult stem cells (from bone marrow, nose cells, fat cells, etc.) or with cord blood cells. There has not been one success using embryonic cells.
We're diverting money from extremely promising research to PC research that hasn't shown any promise yet. Why?
My prayers for his full recovery with this revolutionary technique, and for the hope it inspres in others similarly afflicted!
That's simply one front in the everlasting battle between Good and Evil.
Right now Good has a new toehold with the internet and talk radio.
Just in case you wondered, in the end, in spite of everything, Good wins!
"California's multi billion dollar stem cell research initiative mandates that only stem cells from aborted fetuses be used. So even if adult (ethical) stem cells prove more effective and practical, California is still forced by law to keep using aborted fetuses..."
some stem cells are more equal than others?
*rimshot*
In fact google has quite a few articles.
I pray that they work and this young man becomes whole again.
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