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Reeve regaining movement
11/09/2002 09:26 - (SA)
New York - Christopher Reeve, the Superman actor who was paralysed seven years ago, has regained some movement and sensation in his arms and legs, a spokesperson for the actor said on Tuesday, and his doctor holds out hope he may one day walk again.
Reeve, whose spinal cord was severely damaged when he fell off a horse during an equestrian event, has regained the ability to move his right wrist, the fingers of his left hand and his feet," Maggie Goldberg, spokesperson for the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, said in a statement.
"He can now feel a pin prick on the majority of his body and can move some of his joints voluntarily. He can also move other joints against resistance," said Goldberg about the progress made by Reeve over three years in a treatment regimen devised by Dr. John McDonald.
McDonald, medical director of the Spinal Cord Injury Programme at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, told this week's People magazine that Reeve had made unprecedented progress with the "activity-based" treatment and might yet realise his dream of walking out of his wheelchair.
"The fact that he's having some recovery could make that a possibility," said McDonald, who this month published an article about working with Reeve in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine.
Reeve did not regain any motor functions below his shoulders until five years after his injury. Previously, experts thought recovery was possible only within the first six months to two years.
Most important to Reeve, who turns 50 later this month, is that he now can feel the hugs he receives from his family.
"To be able to feel just the lightest touch is really a gift," Reeve told People.
"The fact is that even if your body doesn't work the way it used to, the heart and the mind and the spirit are not diminished. It's as simple as that."
- Reuters
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