News 
06/23/2009
Welcome Kirk Pedersen!
Walk the Line to SCI Recovery is happy to welcome Kirk Pedersen! Kirk really is a symbol of strength.
For more on Kirk check out his website at: SYMBOLOFSTRENGTH.com
05/26/2009
WALK THE LINE TO SCI RECOVERY IS PLEASED TO HOST THE SECOND ANNUAL TOWN HALL MEETING
WALK THE LINE TO SCI RECOVERY IS PLEASED TO HOST THE SECOND ANNUAL TOWN HALL MEETING, HIGHLIGHTING THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY FOR SPINAL CORD INJURY RECOVERY.
DR. HINDERER AT WORKING 2 WALK (W2W) EVENT.
DR. HINDERER, MEDICAL DIRECTOR OF WALK THE LINE TO SCI RECOVERY, WIL BE PRESENTING AT THIS YEAR’S WORKING 2 WALK (W2W) EVENT.
DR. HINDERER WILL BE PRESENTING “HOW TO SELECT A RECOVERY PROGRAM”, AND WILL DISCUSS THE PROS AND CONS OF WEIGHT SUPPORTED GAIT TRAINING AND HIGH CURRENT E-STIM (BIKES) VERSUS FULL WEIGHT BEARING DYNAMIC WEIGHT TRAINING METHODS WITH DYNAMIC EMG EVALUATIONS ON:
FRIDAY AUGUST 28 AT 1PM
W2W 2009 WILL BE HELD IN CHICAGO ON THURSDAY AUGUST 27 AND FRIDAY AUGUST 28 AT THE HYATT LODGE AT MCDONALD’S CAMPUS IN OAK BROOK, ILLINOIS.
W2W HAS BEEN HOSTED ANNUALLY SINCE 2006 BY UNITE 2 FIGHT PARALYSIS (U2FP) FEATURING PRESENTATIONS BY LEADING RESEARCHERS, PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES, BIOTECHS, AND COMMUNITY ADVOCATES.
ABOUT U2FP and W2W:
UNITE 2 FIGHT PARALYSIS (U2FP) WAS FOUNDED BY 3 MEMBERS OF THE 2005 WASHINGTON RALLY STEERING COMMITTEE - BETHENY WINKLER, SUSAN MAUS, AND MARILYN SMITH. ALL 3 WOMEN HAVE A PERSONAL STAKE IN THE UNITE 2 FIGHT PARALYSIS MISSION. SUE & BETHENY BOTH HAVE DISABLING QUADRIPLEGIC INJURIES, WHILE MARILYN’S OLDEST SON IS ALSO A QUADRIPLEGIC.
UNITE 2 FIGHT PARALYSIS IS A PASSIONATE, VOLUNTEER-BASED, COMMUNITY-DRIVEN ORGANIZATION. SINCE ITS FOUNDING, U2FP HAS EXPANDED ITS LEADERSHIP TEAM AND OUTREACH ACTIVITIES. U2FP IS DEDICATED TO THE REALIZATION OF CURATIVE THERAPIES IN OUR LIFETIMES,
(FROM U2FP.ORG)
05/01/2009
Welcome Brad E. Our Newest Client!
Walk The Line is extremely pleased to announce the expansion of our client family, with the recent addition of Brad Erlandson. We are grateful and honored to have Brad let us join him in his journey to recovery. Welcome BRAD!
03/24/2009
REIKI HEALING Saturday, April 4
Jennifer Van der Wal, of Crystals Love Healing will be here at Walk The Line to Spinal Cord Injury Recovery on Saturday, April 4, to offer free Reiki sessions to our clients and their families.
Reiki is an ancient Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. It involves gentle massage therapy and deep relaxation, and produces beneficial effects by strengthening and normalizing certain vital energy fields held to exist within the body.
For more information on Reiki, please visit: www.reiki.org.
Sessions will be FREE!
Snacks and refreshments will also be provided.
02/06/2009
Walk The Line Announces Dr. Steven Hinderer as Medical Director
Walk The Line to SCI Recovery is very happy to announce Dr. Steven Hinderer as our Medical Director.
Steven R. Hinderer, MD, MS, PT has been a medical rehabilitation professional for over 30 years. He has held faculty positions at the University of Washington Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Michigan Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan. He has participated at federally funded model systems of care for spinal cord injury at all three of these medical training centers and has been funded by NIH for spinal cord injury research.
Dr. Hinderer initiated his commitment to recovery based technologies for spinal cord injury beginning in 2002 in the course of working with Erica Nader and the Nader family on their focus to facilitate her recovery from a cervical spinal cord injury sustained in a motor vehicle accident in 2001. The partnership between Dr. Hinderer and the Nader Family has led to the implementation of several innovative approaches to recovery from spinal cord injury including the establishment of Walk The Line to SCI Recovery in the summer of 2007.
Dr. Hinderer is looking forward to furthering our client’s goals for recovery. His vision for Walk The Line to SCI Recovery includes:
-Ongoing refinement of recovery training methods and modalities along with implementation of applicable innovative new technologies which become available to continue to evolve best practices for recovery from spinal cord injury
-Standardized outcomes data collection for collaborative participation of WTL in clinical trials of new medical and surgical treatment methods for recovery from spinal cord injury
10/20/2008
Detroit Free Press article
Paralyzed woman tests whether exercise will augment surgery
Erica Nader vs. paralysis, round 2
BY PATRICIA ANSTETT
FREE PRESS MEDICAL WRITER
Erica Nader, a West Bloomfield woman and the first U.S. patient to undergo experimental stem cell surgery in Portugal to repair her damaged spinal cord, works out intensely below a T-shirt hanging from the ceiling at her rehabilitation business.
“Train Insane or Stay the Same,” the shirt says, the same philosophy that frames Nader’s recovery from a spinal cord injury — and her unconventional rehabilitation regimen.
Paralyzed from the mid-chest down in an auto accident seven years ago, Nader, 30, has adjusted her daily intensive therapy to focus on standing upright and walking. The exercises are more intense, focused and different from the endurance and upper body strength therapy that most patients get.
She works out three hours a day, five days a week at Walk the Line to SCI Recovery, a Ferndale rehabilitation business she started last year.
It is one of about two dozen programs nationwide that emphasize intensive exercise regimens for spinal cord injury patients. More conventional programs focus on functional daily activities, like transferring from a bed to a wheelchair, or eating food or drinking from a cup. Intense therapy such as Nader’s tends to be offered to people with less serious spinal cord injuries.
Nader attributes the improvements she has made in the last year to the weight-bearing exercises in her regimen that are designed to put her feet on the ground as much as possible. During training, she usually uses either a standing frame or an overhead harness system that supports her while she takes steps.
Since changing the focus in her training to more weight-bearing activity earlier this year, she has noticed her breathing, balance and core strength improve. She feels sensation in her lower limbs at times, for the first time.
The stepping movements and knee flexion exercises, known to professionals in the field as locomotor training, help reawaken dormant nerve cells in the spinal cord, experts say, citing 20 years of studies. They should provide lifelong benefits that reduce health costs, researchers say.
The key, Nader and others say, is that the exercise must place weight on her feet, relying less on technology to do the work for her. “I call it sweat equity,” Nader said. “This is more difficult, but it’s definitely more beneficial.”
Her story provides hope and answers for the 250,000 Americans living with a spinal cord injury. More than 13,000 are newly injured each year, according to the National Spinal Cord Injury Database, a national registry. Many have been told they’d never walk again or regain functions they lost.
Not all agree
Many specialists in the field of rehabilitation medicine say they are waiting for more study about what exercises really work.
There’s concern too much exercise may weaken the bones of people already at risk of bone loss from lack of weight-bearing exercise.
“It’s premature to tell people with spinal cord injuries, if you exercise intensely enough, you’ll restore special cord function and be able to walk,” said Dr. Ed Nieshoff, director of the spinal cord injury recovery program at the Detroit Medical Center’s Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, a top program that attracts patients from around the world.
Dr. Gianna Rodriguez, a spinal cord injury specialist at the University of Michigan’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, said she and others worry that intensive therapies may cause injuries.
The U-M program, like many around the country, focuses more on endurance and upper body strengthening for the most seriously injured patients.
Another obstacle is health insurance. Most plans typically don’t cover intense therapy programs. But a person injured in an auto accident, such as Nader, in a no-fault state like Michigan, can get coverage funded through a state system.
Even then, a person’s coverage may be dropped if an insurer decides progress hasn’t been made and documented.
Walk the Line charges $375 a day for three hours of exercises. Some places, including Nader’s, offer scholarships.
‘Surgery is not enough’
Nader’s story has been followed by people with spinal cord injuries worldwide since she became the first American to have stem cell surgery in Portugal, in March 2003. The operation uses adult stem cells extracted from a person’s own body, in the upper reaches of the nasal cavity, and implants them in the spinal cord at the injury site.
Her Portuguese doctor, visiting Nader’s program in September, said it’s now very clear, after 200 of the operations, that stem-cell surgery alone “is not a silver bullet” some patients seek.
“The most important thing we’ve learned is that the surgery is not enough,” said Dr. Carlos Lima, a neuropathologist and spokesman for the Lisbon stem-cell team.
“The surgery has to be complemented by rehabilitation.”
Dr. Susan Harkema, head of rehabilitation medicine at the University of Louisville and a leading researcher in the field, said locomotor training can help the most severely injured patients relearn how to stand. But they cannot manage sustained movement such as walking on their own.
Twenty years of study in humans has shown that the spinal cord has its own sophisticated nerve system that helps it recall how to move, Harkema said. She awaits new drugs, perhaps injected into the spine, to complement exercise and help regenerate spinal cord nerves. And the stronger a person is, the healthier and better he or she will be for treatments down the road, Harkema said.
“Everyone has the feeling we’re close to finding the combination of strategies” that helps patients most, added Dr. Edelle Field-Fote, associate professor of physical therapy and neurological surgery at the University of Miami, which has a cutting edge program for spinal cord injury.
Nader believes that the work and money for the therapy is worth it. She said she is stronger, quicker and healthier than she was just a year ago. She’s encouraged that seven years after her injury she continues to make progress, both walking and exercising.
Nader’s therapy remains covered. She tells people with spinal cord injuries to save money for rehab.
“However you are doing it, be sure you have a big enough pot of money to do the therapy afterwards,” said Nader.
She expects a lifetime of better health, and lower medical costs.
“Over time, I’ve learned that the actual physical part of walking is a small part of the recovery process,” Nader said.
08/14/2008
Walk The Line Hosts Town Hall Meeting
08/08/2008
Conscious Nutrition Comes to Walk The Line!
Walk The Line welcomes Heather Fleming of Conscious Nutrition August 13, 14, 15. Heather will be scheduling individual nutritional assessments, hosting a “healthy happy hour”, offering information on healthy foods, supplements and resources for better nutrition.
For more information on Heather Fleming and Conscious Nutrition visit:
www.consciousnutrition.com
Come join us at Walk The Line To Spinal Cord Injury Recovery for a HEALTHY HAPPY HOUR Wednesday August 13. The HEALTHY HAPPY HOUR will include nutritious refreshments and snacks accompanied by a presentation.
The HEALTHY HAPPY HOUR is FREE and open to the public. Come see how easy (and FUN) eating healthy can be!!!
HEALTHY HAPPY HOUR
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 13
5-7PM
@ WALK THE LINE TO SCI RECOVERY
23257 WOODWARD
FERNDALE 48220
248-691-4540
SPACE IS LIMITED- PLEASE RSVP BY TUESDAY AUG.12
See you there!
Erica
www.walkthelinetoscirecovery.com
For more information call 248-691-4540 or email INFO@WALKTHELINETOSCIRECOVERY.COM
07/21/2008
2008 Erica Nader Award
On June 21, 2008 the 5th Annual Erica Nader Award was presented to Dr. Jerry Silver at the 2008 ASIA Conference in San Diego, CA.
The Erica Nader Award is generously funded by the Viscogliosi Brothers LLC and is awarded for breakthrough research in spinal cord regeneration.
Read Erica Nader’s presentation speech at the 2008 ASIA conference award ceremony.
Nothing Is Impossible
Difficult things take a long time, impossible things a little longer. ~Author Unknown
This quote begs the question, what is impossible? Many of us have been faced with what seems to be an “impossible” situation at some time in our lives. The odds are stacked against you, the goal seems almost out of reach and you may even question your own ability to make the impossible—possible.
The Erica Nader Award is generously funded through the Viscogliosi Brothers, LLC for breakthrough research in the area of spinal cord regeneration. Now in it’s fifth year this award has provided much needed funding for scientists leading the way in the field of spinal cord injury recovery. This award also strives to serve as a beacon of hope for those of us in the spinal cord injured communities, our family and friends.
In October of 2001 after a car accident left me with a C6/7 spinal cord injury the list of “impossibles” began to stack up. The list that slowly compiled in my head of things I would never be able to do, including walking, were all confirmed by my doctors. Many of the “impossibles” on my list such as sitting up independently, transferring independently and pushing a manual chair have all been moved to my “possible” list.
Six years ago when my family and I were looking for spinal cord injury recovery programs the words spinal cord injury and recovery were hardly even uttered in the same sentence. At that time only 2 or 3 programs existed in the world. Now, not even seven years since we first searched the Internet for “Spinal cord injury recovery” there are nearly two dozen SCI recovery-exercise based programs in the world with over half of those in the USA.
Those of us involved in intense, exercise based SCI recovery programs are making progress towards our individual goals of recovering from our injuries. We dedicate in some cases 25 hours or more a week to various “non-traditional” therapies, we sacrifice our time, money and relationships all in the pursuit of a recovery that we know is real. As a participant in such a program and the owner of a Detroit based SCI recovery facility my hope for recovery is reaffirmed daily by either my own progress or that of our clients.
This morning I have come before you to present this award on behalf of the Viscogliosi Brothers, my family and the SCI community. I have also come with a message from the “front lines”-
The SCI community is ready for recovery- with hard work and determination we are making progress everyday but we need your help to finish the job. Now more than ever the SCI community understands that recovery doesn’t come in a pill or a syringe – recovery starts as a whisper in our minds that is heard by our bodies.
This year’s recipient of the Erica Nader Award, Dr. Jerry Silver, knows a thing or two about overcoming the “impossible”. Dr. Silver has developed a micro transplantation technique which enables the injection of adult neurons into normal or lesioned white matter tracts of the adult CNS, without causing the formation of additional reactive astroglial associated inhibitory molecules via the transplantation itself. In so doing, Dr. Silver discovered that adult nerve cells could regenerate their axons with high efficiency and at high rates of speed. We are excited about his work and look forward to learning more.
While my ultimate goal of a full recovery and walking again has not yet been reached, it is within sight. The road to recovery is long and it is not traveled alone. I’d like to thank the Viscogliosi Brothers for generously supporting the Erica Nader Award, the ASIA conference for embracing spinal cord injury regeneration research and this year’s recipient, Dr. Jerry Silver, for challenging the paradigms and for his breakthrough research bringing us one step closer to the recovery so many of us seek.
