At left, Dr. Raymond Onders explains the use of the battery pack in Christopher Reeve's "Diaphragm Pacing System."More information at http://www.uhhs.com/DisplayContent.aspx?PageID=247
Posted on 10/12/2004 10:39:10 PM PDT by Jim_Curtis
McDonald said that he and Reeve had spoken about the possibility of donating his brain and spinal cord for study. But Goldberg said yesterday that there would be no autopsy.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Would certain people worry about what might be found in this autopsy?
Just what is that supposed mean?
assisted suicide? just guessing
The article makes it sound like he arranged in detail what would be done with his body after death, and autopsy wasn't in the deal.
Maybe. But I doubt it. People in his condition lose the will to live. Many in his condition don't live as long as he did. It was bound to happen without outside help.
Went through my head too.
If I was receiving experimental medical treatments and I was a spokesman for that industry, I would want to have an extremely thorough autopsy so that a wealth of information could be gathered about how the treatments affected all of my organs so that information could be used by the researchers.
Not what I was thinking. If he was receiving fetal stem cell treatments it might not be a political benefit to certain people if those controversial treatments are killing people instead of making them well.
Quadraplegics caused by heck injuries usually result in death within about 10 years. No surprise that Reeve died of infections about this time.
People die of pressure ulcer infections all the time. They get staph infections and the staph spreads in the body and it causes heart failure and death... not at all unusual. The same thing killed little Mannie Stephanovich.
Perhaps some experiment went awry.
CLEVELAND, March 13, 2003 - Nearly eight years after the accident that left Christopher Reeve paralyzed and dependent on a ventilator, the 50-year old actor and activist has hopes of breathing more normally, with the aid of a surgically implanted investigational device. On Friday, February 28, 2003, Reeve underwent minimally invasive surgery at University Hospitals of Cleveland, where a team led by surgeon Raymond Onders, MD, and program director Anthony DiMarco, MD, implanted the device, developed in partnership with biomedical engineers at Case Western Reserve University.Working through a small laparoscope in what is essentially an outpatient procedure, surgeons placed electrodes in Reeve's diaphragm muscle. The electrodes are attached through wires under the skin to a small external battery pack that electrically stimulates the muscle and the phrenic nerves, causing the muscle to contract and air to enter the lungs. Diaphragm contraction accounts for most of the ventilation required for normal breathing.
Because the surgical placement of the device is performed in an outpatient setting through minimally invasive techniques, risks and costs of this diaphragm pacing system are significantly less than standard procedures to electrically activate the diaphragm. The standard technique requires surgeons to make large incisions in the chest (thoracotomy) to place electrodes in direct contact with the phrenic nerves. That procedure carries substantially more risk and requires a prolonged hospital stay. The standard procedure typically costs more than $100,000 (device plus surgery, hospitalization and follow-up), whereas the laparoscopic surgery and implantation of the new device could cost less than half that amount. The development of the investigative diaphragm pacing system is currently being supported by a Food and Drug Administration Orphan Products Development grant to Dr. DiMarco as principal investigator, and a U.S. Surgical Corporation grant to Dr. Onders as principal investigator.
Dr. Onders, a surgeon at University Hospitals of Cleveland specializing in minimally invasive techniques and assistant professor of surgery at CWRU, implanted the first such device in a patient nearly three years ago. The patient, a 36-year-old quadriplegic from Ohio, had a similar injury to Reeve, having damaged the upper part of his spinal cord (C2 level) in a swimming accident. The patient has been successfully breathing without the need for mechanical ventilation for more than two years.
"This device allows patients to breathe and speak more normally, and it increases mobility," explains Dr. DiMarco, professor of medicine and physiology at CWRU. "Patients realize an improved sense of smell." Moreover, in social situations, diaphragm pacing gives the appearance of normal breathing whereas mechanical ventilation has ventilator tubing and constant ventilator noise.
Since the implantation of the first device by Dr. Onders three years ago, biomedical engineers J. Thomas Mortimer, PhD, professor emeritus of biomedical engineering at CWRU, and Anthony R. Ignagni, project director and chief biomedical engineer, have improved the operation of the pacing device. Reeve has continued to keep updated on this research, and expressed interest as a study participant about a year ago.
Reeve became a candidate after a thorough evaluation and determination that his phrenic nerve function is normal, as demonstrated in nerve conduction studies and fluoroscopic examination of diaphragm movement. On February 28, 2003, he underwent a 4 1/2 hour outpatient surgical procedure at University Hospitals of Cleveland to implant the electrodes and lead-wires. "Our initial test in the operating room to activate Reeve's diaphragm yielded impressive results," says Dr. Onders. "As the diaphragm contracted, his lungs filled with air and the volume of air that was exhaled and measured was certainly adequate for us to believe that this device would provide successful breathing support." Reeve returned home the following day.
Reeve returned to Cleveland on March 9 to begin the reconditioning process of strengthening the diaphragm through a series of intermittent stimulations at the National Institutes of Health-funded CWRU General Clinical Research Center at MetroHealth Medical Center. "Each electrode is individually evaluated to determine the degree of diaphragm contraction and resulting inspired volume of air," explains Dr. DiMarco. Since the diaphragm is atrophied from disuse, a period of gradually increasing stimulation is necessary to regain normal strength and endurance. Reeve will continue the conditioning process at home, with the ultimate goal of eliminating the need for the mechanical ventilator.
Of the 10,000 new cases of spinal cord injury each year in the United States, approximately 1,000 patients require mechanical ventilation for some period after injury. Researchers believe that implanting this device shortly after the spinal cord is damaged may enable some to maintain diaphragm muscle strength and prevent atrophy, which develops on mechanical ventilation. Many of these individuals eventually are able to breathe on their own, as the nerves that control breathing recover from the initial injury. Others, like Reeve (perhaps 300 cases each year), would benefit from life-long breathing support as the implanted device itself activates the nerves that inspire breathing. Said Christopher Reeve, "The constant and high cost of care for ventilator dependent patients not only exhausts most insurance policies but contributes to strain on families and caregivers. Once this procedure receives FDA approval, these patients and their caregivers should be able to achieve significant improvements in their quality of life. Diaphragm pacing unlocks a door to greater independence, one of the most important goals for all people living with disabilities."
The development of the investigational diaphragm pacing system has been a collaborative effort involving numerous physicians and engineers at several institutions in Cleveland, including University Hospitals of Cleveland, Case Western Reserve University, the VA Medical Center, and MetroHealth Medical Center. Drs. Onders and DiMarco currently work closely with Mr. Ignagni and with Dr. Mortimer, who devoted more than 20 years of research to electrically activating the nervous system at the Applied Neural Control Laboratory in the biomedical engineering department at CWRU.
The investigational diaphragm pacing system, portions of which were patented by CWRU, is now being developed by Synapse Biomedical, Ltd, of Cleveland. Funding assistance was provided by the Food and Drug Administration, U.S Surgical Corporation, University Hospitals of Cleveland, the VA, and the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health.
More information about this clinical investigation can be found at University Hospitals of Cleveland's website at www.uhhs.com/christopherreeve. Patients who are interested in becoming candidates for the investigational diaphragm pacing system can also call 216-844-UHHS (8447).
At left, Dr. Raymond Onders explains the use of the battery pack in Christopher Reeve's "Diaphragm Pacing System."More information at http://www.uhhs.com/DisplayContent.aspx?PageID=247
http://www.uhhs.com/displaycontent.aspx?pageid=249&MID=92
5. How does the minimally invasive procedure work?
Surgeons create four dime-size holes in the abdominal region, inserting tools (including a laparoscope) that allow them to visualize the diaphragm muscle and place tiny electrodes in areas near the phrenic nerves that control diaphragm contractions. A procedure called "mapping" allows doctors to find specific areas where electrodes will be most effective in stimulating the nerves. The electrodes are delivered safely to those areas through a patented laparoscopic tool and implanted in the muscle. The mapping techniques and electrode delivery tool were designed and developed by the research team at University Hospitals of Cleveland and Case Western Reserve University. The electrodes are attached through wires under the skin to a small external battery pack that electrically stimulates the muscle and the phrenic nerves, causing the diaphragm to contract. Contraction of the diaphragm muscle accounts for most of the air that inflates the lungs during normal, quiet breathing.
Christopher Reeve went public with the detail that he was on the verge of suicide soon after his injury. I do not recall the circumstances (i.e. how close he actually got).
Jerry Lewis has admitted that he got so worked up over the pain and pills that he was dealing with for his back injury that he had the gun out when someone walked in (one of his grandkids I believe). He is doing much better these days and telling everyone about the electronic device had surgically implanted.
IMO , assisted suicide could be a possibility, who knows....
it was a terrible last several years for Superman, and despite his politics he acted with grace and dignity, and brought attention to the terrible legacy of paralysis....
the anecdotal info I'll add is that with people that are paralysed the biggest problem seems to be repeated pneumonias......
eventually, the decision is made to stop treating the pneumonias and letting the person die gracefully.....
How much do you want to bet Kerry shows up at the funeral/memorial service? I hope Dana doesn't let it turn into a political event, but rather a remembrance and tribute to Christopher's life. I hope so anyway.
Thank you. I had been wondering what the average life span is for someone in Reeves' condition.
I'm not taking issue with the infection or other procedures that people are posting in this thread about. My point is that he was certainly a pioneer "guinea pig" for what we are being told are magical new treatments and there should be extreme curiosity about how these things affected Mr.Reeves' body.
If there is no autopsy for the person whose autopsy would be of such interest then you got to ask why.
Nothing else answers the "why" except fears of what would be found during the autopsy and since libs are working the deception that fetal cell research doesn't even exist because of mean ol' Bush, the very reporting that Reeves was receiving such treatments wouldn't help their deception.
I'll give a 3% chance to another theory, Reeve was put into deep freeze and they had Drudge break the huge story because the headline was a deception.
The theories assume this Newsday article is true, that there will be no autopsy. Even if there is an autopsy, the public will likely not be made aware of the results.
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