On the Move After Spinal Cord Injury

Each year, nearly 11,000 people experience spinal cord injuries (SCI) in the United States. PM&R physicians direct the highly specialized care of these individuals and their needs.

PM&R physicians coordinate a multidisciplinary team of health care professionals who help individuals with SCI return to independent living. Advances are continually made. Fifty years ago, people with SCI lived only about two years. Now they can expect close to an average life expectancy.

Christopher Reeve and other high profile SCI survivors have done much to raise awareness of living with SCI. But as PM&R physicians see every day, you don't have to be a superhero or a celebrity to meet the challenges of spinal cord injury. Here are just two examples.

Cheryl Angelelli

In 1983, 14-year-old Cheryl Angelelli was practicing a new dive with her YMCA swim team. She hit the bottom of the pool and sustained a spinal cord injury that left her paralyzed from the waist down with limited use of her hands and legs. She spent five months at the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan (RIM) in Detroit where the staff treated not only the physical rehabilitation of her spinal cord injury, but helped her relearn everyday activities such as feeding herself, brushing her teeth, and getting dressed.

Angelelli found herself quickly back in the pool. "The pool was always a part of my therapy," she says, and she believes the staff may have encouraged her to quickly return to the water to prevent a future fear of it.

Fast forward to 1996, Angelelli traveled to Atlanta as a freelance writer assigned to cover the Paralympic games. Watching athletes competing with disabilities, especially the swimmers, she was inspired. "It was an amazing experience," she says. "I turned to my friend and said, ‘In four years, I want to be able to do this.' "

Angelelli came home to Roseville, Michigan, found a coach and got back into the pool after 14 years. Her absence from the swimming scene wasn't due to a lack of ambition. "I was just too busy with other things," she says. Among them, returning to high school, continuing to college, and earning a bachelor's degree in communications from Oakland University.

After two years of training and hard work, Angelelli was competing in New Zealand at the 1998 World Championships for Swimmers with Disabilities as part of the US team.

And now she'll realize her goal.

In October of 2000, Angelelli traveled to Sydney, Australia, to represent the United States as part of the 29-member US Paralympic Swim Team. During the Paralympic trials in Indianapolis earlier that year, Cheryl did more than just qualify for five events. She became the new national champion in the 100 meter freestyle and set an American record in the 100 meter breaststroke. She is ranked among the top five swimmers in the world.

To get there, Angelelli worked full time and trained full time. She swims five days a week after work and spends a sixth day in the gym. "It's like my second job," she laughs.

This former patient of the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, is now its manager of marketing and public relations. "I love the people here, and I love what we do here. We really help people rebuild their lives." With her own personal experience in mind, she says, "When I see a patient come through the doors I know they won't be the same person when they leave." And RIM's support of her athletic endeavors should really not be that surprising Angelelli says, because "I'm living their mission."

Angelelli's accomplishments have a lot to do with her positive attitude about living with a spinal cord injury. "It's not a terrible life. The only real limitations I have are the ones I place on myself."

Tom Haig

In September of 1996, Tom Haig hopped on his bicycle to go to a local sports bar to watch a Green Bay Packers game. A former professional diver who spent four years bicycling in the French Alps, Haig biked over 100 miles a week in his new home of Portland. Ironically, it wasn't a risky dive or biking around a mountain curve that put him in danger. It was a car blowing through a stop sign on that sunny day that knocked him off his bike and under a truck. A bike helmet and a Packer "cheesehead" saved his head and neck. "My legs, however, were toast," says Haig.

"As a former professional athlete, most of my confidence and self esteem lay in a motionless heap below my pelvis. It's not the kind of game you can win by yourself. Spinal cord injury is a team sport and the only path to victory is to have a dedicated, tireless team on your side."

Haig received tremendous support from his family and friends. Among his biggest supporters is his brother, Andrew Haig, MD, a PM&R physician. Dr. Haig knew the importance of getting his brother immediate rehabilitation for his spinal cord injury.

After three months of inpatient rehabilitation, Haig gradually resumed his active life. He adds, "It's you versus your new body. Your new body makes and changes the rules without notice." He returned to the French Alps and rode his old bike routes using a hand cycle, he visited a friend in Italy, and spent two weeks in the Middle East.

Re-hired by his old employer Adidas America as a corporate writer, he covered the 1998 World Cup in France and last year's women's World Cup. The company also supported his training for the Boston Marathon, which he completed in 1998.

And Haig shows no sign of slowing down. "Challenge Oregon Adaptive Ski Program has me on a mono-ski taking on the blue runs of Oregon's Mt. Bachelor. As you read this, I'll be in India doing Web production for the Dalai Lama in India. With all the challenges that my team has faced and won, I feel it is my duty to press on and prove that their efforts have not been in vain. No matter what I accomplish, it can only reflect a sliver of the love and support I've received."