Paralyzed Rats Walk Again: Study Gives Victims Paralyzed in Car Accidents Hope

Paralyzed Rats Walk Again: Study Gives Victims Paralyzed in Car Accidents Hope

Posted on June 1, 2012 | Written By: iadminlaw

Animal,Porkey Pig, Lobund-Wistar (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Leaping rats! Once paralyzed rodents, can now adroitly walk, run and leap again per a study published on Science, an online scientific publication. Almost as if it were a miracle, the study, done by a group of scientists, gives paraplegics hope to one day walk on their own as well. In United States, half of human spinal cord injuries lead to chronic paralysis. There are about 11,000 new injuries incurred yearly, the majority of them are incurred by young males. Not only does paralysis hurt the person’s personal life, it also hurts the economy; many of the people who are injured can no longer perform their work duties. The procedure used in the study does not rely on old conceptions of regenerating the severed spinal cord but in creating a whole new path where the brain and spinal cord can connect.

An infant’s nervous system served as the archetype for the study. It develops through experience progressively syncing the brain and limbs as the child learns to walk, stand, run and play. Rats were put on a similar training regimen where they learned to walk, run and jump over obstacles. Electrical and chemical stimulation of the rat’s broken spinal columns and a robotic postural interface were done in the training. The brain regained the capacity to once again perform physical tasks which were thought permanently lost at the time of paralysis.

English: The central nervous system of the human (the brain and the spinal cord) at the Natural History Museum in London. Magyar: Az ember központi idegrendszere (az agy és a gerincvelő) a londoni Természettudományi Múzeumban. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Paralysis affects nearly 250,000 Americans; about 52% of them are paraplegic meaning that about 130,000 people cannot expect to walk in their lifetime. It is estimated that about 55% of those happened as a result of a vehicular accident – auto, truck, motorcycle or bus. More often those accidents occur in rollover type accidents. When the roof of the vehicle caves in the human’s spine can be contorted in a position where it can experience sudden stress and trauma leading to paralysis. Such accidents happen suddenly and without warning. As of now there is no safe way to treat chronic paralysis or get paraplegics to walk. Some physicians offer physical training after the accident which can help but does not always have a positive outcome many expect. Most patients can rack up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical attention and lose the ability to perform their jobs.

Loss of income and physical mobility can affect a person’s life permanently. If you feel that you were unjustly injured and deserve the right to compensation contact a car accident lawyer. You deserve someone with expertise and who cares about you to protect you and get you the compensation you need. Accident Attorney’s Group has earned their clients hundreds of thousands of dollars and has gotten them compensation.

Now that this study has proven to successfully treat paralysis on rats, more than ever it is possible for the same procedures to be applied and used on humans and hopefully with the same success making it possible for paraplegics to walk again. Phase two of the experiment will be conducted on humans two years from now. The study will be done in the research lab of UCLA neurophysiologist Victor Edgerton. Contact your Los Angeles car accident lawyer if you or someone you know can benefit from this study and deserves compensation.