May 2005 | United Spinal’s Action Online Magazine

May 2005 Issue – Featured Articles

A Compendium of Sports Events for United Spinal Members
Living Wills and Health Care Proxies: Avoiding the Schiavo Scenario
United Spinal Reaches Out to Hispanic Community
Nature’s Course: Harvesting Adult Stem Cells for Therapy

A Compendium of Sports Events for United Spinal Members

Castle Point VA Bowlers Win 5th Annual United Spinal Tournament
For the second year in a row, a team of bowlers with disabilities from the Castle Point VA went home victorious at this year’s 5th Annual United Spinal Association Bowling Tournament. The Castle Point team dominated the event, winning first place and taking home the lion’s share of awards at the presentation ceremony. Over 50 individuals with disabilities from New York, Pennsylvania, and Maine competed in the tournament, which was hosted at Chacko’s Bowling Lanes in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Living Wills and Health Care Proxies: Avoiding the Schiavo Scenario

In late March, it seemed that all the national news media were focused on the fate of Teri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged Florida woman whose family battled in court to determine whether, after 15 years in a persistent vegetative state, she should live or die. Schiavo’s husband insisted that she would have wanted to die rather than remain indefinitely in her cognitive state. Her parents and siblings argued that while she was still alive and possibly conscious, to remove her feeding tube was tantamount to murder. The Florida courts-and eventually the federal courts, as well-agreed with Schiavo’s husband.

United Spinal Reaches Out to Hispanic Community

Anyone with a spinal cord impairment (SCI) will tell you that it is a life-altering circumstance. That is why, along with family support and the right medical attention, an association like United Spinal, which promotes accessibility in the mainstream as well as independence for individuals with SCI, is essential for the newly injured or diagnosed. But imagine if you or your family had difficulty with the language and lacked awareness about the benefits of such an organization.

Nature’s Course: Harvesting Adult Stem Cells for Therapy

After dozens of procedures in Europe, a promising therapy for people with SCI crosses the Atlantic

“A stem cell is a cell that has not begun to develop into any specific tissue type, and it really has the potential to become any different type of tissue in the body,” explains Dr. Steven Hinderer, director of the Center for SCI Recovery at the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan. “In normal human growth and development in a fetus, there are various signals from the environment, in utero, that prompt cells to begin to differentiate into specific tissue types, and it’s even possible outside the uterus and [...]

Theatre Company uses humor and drama to raise consciousness about disability issues.

“I’m one of those people who tends to go into a room and notice what is not represented, as well as what is represented,” says Joan Lipkin, artistic director of That UPPITY Theatre Company in St. Louis, Missouri. “I noticed, so often, when I would go to the theatre, I would rarely see people with apparent physical disabilities onstage. It just seemed like a population that wasn’t represented very much, and so I became more interested in what that was about. I was interested in seeing what it would be like to look into the lives of people with disabilities, and have [...]

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