With the help of a metal bar, 20-year old Amanda Perla manages to stand by herself, quite an accomplishment considering that a car accident on prom night two years ago left her a quadriplegic. "They said I would be in a power chair for the rest of my life, and I was in a manual chair within six months."
Perla's mother, Liza Riedel, wanted more for her daughter but says therapy options were limited. "They either didn't have the equipment or they didn't have the manpower, or they just didn't know enough about spinal cord injuries." Reidel opened the "step it up" recovery center, a controversial program that forces patients out of their wheelchairs and into the gym. Through aggressive exercise and repetitive motions, therapists try to reorganize the nervous system. "Just in working hands-on with the clients, I've already seen gains in little movements that become bigger."
Therapists work on the body and mind by helping patients mentally focus on the movements. They work on hip stability by kneeling, and patients practice standing with their knees locked. The goal -- help patients regain function, possibly even walk again … but some doctors say it may be providing a false hope. "Most patients who sustain a significant spinal cord trauma are left with more or less permanent neurological deficits."
Research has shown nerve cells can regenerate, but Doctor Garrett Riggs says that's not enough. "Nerve cells do grow but the problem is getting them to grow from the right spot and make the right connections." But Amanda Perla says she's already gone beyond doctors' expectations and believes she'll walk again. "I think it will happen in a couple of years, yeah."
A young woman trying to re-train her body and re-define medicine's limits.
Clients undergo therapy three to four times a week and each session lasts about three hours.
