2004-10-19
This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report.
Actor Christopher Reeve died last
week. He was fifty-two years old. He was a movie star who became an
activist for people with spinal cord injuries. Mister Reeve died
last Sunday after developing a serious bloodstream infection from a
pressure wound. Such a wound can form on the skin of people who are
not able to move. The wound became severely infected and the
infection spread through his body. It caused his major organs to
shut down. He suffered a heart attack and went into a coma at a
hospital near his home outside New York City.
Christopher Reeve became famous after starring in the four
"Superman" movies in the nineteen seventies and eighties. His life
changed in nineteen ninety-five. He was thrown from his horse during
a horseback-riding competition. The accident broke his neck, leaving
him unable to move his arms or legs. He was paralyzed from the neck
down. He could not breathe without the help of a machine. Doctors
said he broke the top two vertebrae in his neck and damaged his
spinal cord.
At the time of the accident, doctors said he would probably live
only for seven more years because of the severity of his injury.
But Mister Reeve surprised the doctors through his efforts to
recover. He began working to strengthen his legs and arms. Doctors
used electrical shocks to re-activate his nervous system. In
two-thousand, he regained the ability to move his finger. He later
regained some movement and feeling in other parts of his body. And
last year, an experimental electric device was placed in his
abdomen. It permitted him to breathe without a respirator for hours
at a time.
After his accident, Christopher Reeve promised himself that he
would walk again. He used his fame to raise millions of dollars for
research into spinal cord injuries. He worked to get better
protection for people with long-term disabilities. And he led
efforts to increase funding for stem cell research. Many scientists
believe such research may lead to cures for paralysis and other
conditions, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Some
research has shown that stem cells could help paralyzed mice and
rats to move again.
Experts say about two hundred fifty thousand Americans suffer
from paralysis.
This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia
Kirk. This is Gwen Outen.