Frank Reynolds Treated His Own Spinal Cord Injury And Walked Again

[QuadClaude]

I ran across this yesterday and am wondering if anyone is following their progress? I searched the CCC and did not find anything listed in here, forgive me for double posting if it is in here. I also tried to find more info on the web but could not find anything.

God Bless,
Nolegs

[QuadClaude]

Frank Reynolds Treated His Own Spinal Cord Injury And Walked Again

Sorry, I forgot to post the link.

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2010/09/fr...-walked-again/

God Bless,
Nolegs

[keeping on]

Quade, I don't know,but a figment of our imagination. Oct 11th is soon approaching. I hope and pray that the outcome will be real and verified and we all can look forward to real improvements. It's a long wait and a lot of bs outhere.

[Jawaid]

Unable to know that what he did in the surgery that he was able to walk again.
Any body knows?

[JoeMonte]

This Frank Reynolds never revealed his injury during the video. He might of mentioned a car accident. It would change medical history if he can implant and connect a severed cord. Hopefully, FDA will give him clearance. He said this coming year 2011 is when he wants to conduct clinical trials. I wonder if Dr. Wise has had contact with him and his work? Maybe he will comment on it.

[skippopotamus]

Very interesting video. Thank you for posting it. I was hoping for some questions and answers at the end but it just ended.

[stephen212]

This Frank Reynolds never revealed his injury during the video. He might of mentioned a car accident. It would change medical history if he can implant and connect a severed cord. Hopefully, FDA will give him clearance. He said this coming year 2011 is when he wants to conduct clinical trials. I wonder if Dr. Wise has had contact with him and his work? Maybe he will comment on it.

I found Wise on Facebook a few weeks ago and asked him for his comments. Here's the conversation:

Me
Hi Wise. Can you share a quick sentence or two re InVivo Therapuetics? The Reynolds TED presentation has created considerable excitement on CC and I was wondering whether the buzz equals the hype.
Wise
The company uses technology developed by the Langer lab and Ted Teng. I respect them. I haven't heard sufficient detail about their clinical trial in spinal cord injury to have any comments, however.
Me
Has their data not yet been published?
Wise
I am not sure that the polymer scaffold that they have is any better or worse than others. I don't know how they are going to implant the scaffold. In rats where they use the scaffold to connect the spinal cord but they haven't indicated how they plan to do this in human.
Wise
They are doing the monkey studies but those studies have not yet been published (at least I haven't seen it). They are good people and I am hopeful that they will come up with a good clinical trial proposal that I can support.
Me
My father -- who has no expertise re SCI research -- watched the video and was turned off by Reynold's "pitchman" presentation, particularly as it may be aimed toward the upcoming IPO -- not that you can comment.
Wise
Yes, unfortunately, all the best intentions are often subverted when money is involved.
Me
But Reynolds seemed to be suggesting that their 100% success in their primate studies was a first, hence all the excitement.
Wise
I have trouble imagining how they will implant a scaffold into the injury site of the spinal cord.
Me
OK. We'll all stay tuned. Thanks!
Wise
In animals, where you are creating the injury, you can use the scaffold to bridge a cut spinal cord. However, if you are doing this in a contused spinal cord, where do you cut and what do you remove in order to fit the scaffold in?
Me
One last Q: When it comes to treating chronics, if you "re-acute" the spinal cord -- that is, remove the "scar tissue" as Reynolds describes -- do you necessarily create the cellular conditions as an acute injury?
Are the two equivalent?
Wise
We have now progressed beyond the point of having to re-injure the spinal cord to create conditions of growth. That was being suggested when we did not know what was going on in the spinal cord after injury.
In most people, a second injury is likely to damage surviving axons and cause a more severe injury.
Me
Is the cord distal to the lesion in a chronic injury altered from its pre-injury state?
Wise
Yes, there is a lot of sprouting by local fibers that have taken over synaptic sites that have previously been occupied by descending fibers. The neurons in the lower spinal cord may also become hyper-excitable, resulting in spasticity.
Me
Thanks again for your time.
Wise
sure.

[alpentalic]

I was wondering about his story too. The best I can piece it together from various articles is:

Somewhere in those pages, Reynolds came across a theory -- a notion that has since gained credibility among many experts -- that by intensifying his physical rehab routine, he could reactivate dormant neural connections and make his spine come alive again. Instead of 45-minute sessions with a therapist three times a week, he began daily workouts that combined hours of aquatic therapy in a YMCA pool with as much time as he could handle on a treadmill. Supporting himself with his upper body, he grimaced through the pain and simply forced his legs to move. After three months, he could walk a quarter of a mile a day; after a year, he could manage five. He was now able to drive himself, using both feet. He removed his body cast and got ready to go back to work.

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20100301...frank-run.html

which seems to imply it was the increase in rehab exercise that got him going again, not the technology he is now representing. By now I'm used to these articles getting all the facts wrong, I hope Invivio is all that and more but I'm equally curious as to what his rejuvenation routine consisted of. I'm guessing he was more incomplete than he realized and was a prime example of what intensive therapy can do for the right injury?

[IMHopeful]

Frank Reynolds will be at W2W

I ran across this yesterday and am wondering if anyone is following their progress? I searched the CCC and did not find anything listed in here, forgive me for double posting if it is in here. I also tried to find more info on the web but could not find anything.

God Bless,
Nolegs

If you have an opportunity to attend Working 2 Walk November 11-13, Frank Reynolds will be there and you will have an opportunity to learn more about him and his research.

FYI -
Early Bird registration ends at the end of this month.

[ip]

In the TED video, Reynolds said he started researching SCI, and then he fast-forwarded, and **boom** he is walking again.

I'm sure Reynolds folks are reading this. Can you guys or even Frank enlighten us how he was cured? Any sort of surgical intervention, or a type of Lorenzo's oil, as Frank implied?

[mcferguson]

I found Wise on Facebook a few weeks ago and asked him for his comments. Here's the conversation:

Me
Hi Wise. Can you share a quick sentence or two re InVivo Therapuetics? The Reynolds TED presentation has created considerable excitement on CC and I was wondering whether the buzz equals the hype.
Wise
The company uses technology developed by the Langer lab and Ted Teng. I respect them. I haven't heard sufficient detail about their clinical trial in spinal cord injury to have any comments, however.
Me
Has their data not yet been published?
Wise
I am not sure that the polymer scaffold that they have is any better or worse than others. I don't know how they are going to implant the scaffold. In rats where they use the scaffold to connect the spinal cord but they haven't indicated how they plan to do this in human.
Wise
They are doing the monkey studies but those studies have not yet been published (at least I haven't seen it). They are good people and I am hopeful that they will come up with a good clinical trial proposal that I can support.
Me
My father -- who has no expertise re SCI research -- watched the video and was turned off by Reynold's "pitchman" presentation, particularly as it may be aimed toward the upcoming IPO -- not that you can comment.
Wise
Yes, unfortunately, all the best intentions are often subverted when money is involved.
Me
But Reynolds seemed to be suggesting that their 100% success in their primate studies was a first, hence all the excitement.
Wise
I have trouble imagining how they will implant a scaffold into the injury site of the spinal cord.
Me
OK. We'll all stay tuned. Thanks!
Wise
In animals, where you are creating the injury, you can use the scaffold to bridge a cut spinal cord. However, if you are doing this in a contused spinal cord, where do you cut and what do you remove in order to fit the scaffold in?
Me
One last Q: When it comes to treating chronics, if you "re-acute" the spinal cord -- that is, remove the "scar tissue" as Reynolds describes -- do you necessarily create the cellular conditions as an acute injury?
Are the two equivalent?
Wise
We have now progressed beyond the point of having to re-injure the spinal cord to create conditions of growth. That was being suggested when we did not know what was going on in the spinal cord after injury.
In most people, a second injury is likely to damage surviving axons and cause a more severe injury.
Me
Is the cord distal to the lesion in a chronic injury altered from its pre-injury state?
Wise
Yes, there is a lot of sprouting by local fibers that have taken over synaptic sites that have previously been occupied by descending fibers. The neurons in the lower spinal cord may also become hyper-excitable, resulting in spasticity.
Me
Thanks again for your time.
Wise
sure.

thanks for posting this.

[Norm]

yea how did he cure himself?

[keeping on]

Thanks for the conversation you had with Wise.

[ip]

This guy Reynolds sued Wharton for the right to be called a Wharton graduate even though he graduated from some executive education program there, not the full business school. Wharton lost, Reynolds can call himself a "graduate". Now Wharton will appeal. Why does Spinal Cord Injury attract these quacks??????????

[ip]

http://www.boston.com/business/techn...camp=obnetwork

- A 1994 article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about spinal fusion surgery, "used widely to repair back problems," mentions Reynolds. It includes this passage:

Frank Reynolds...was injured while loading a truck on the job in December 1991. Before undergoing surgery that involved a spinal fusion with pedicle screws at Pennsylvania Hospital in December 1992, Reynolds said he was told by his surgeon that ''you'll be back at work in six weeks. . . . He said I will play tennis, basketball and golf at full speed."
- Asked about that article and the 1994 lawsuit, Reynolds replied in an e-mail, "The facts you sent me are wrong," and by phone told me that he was working as a psychotherapist at the time of his car accident.

***********

What this implies is that Reynolds wasn't paralyzed in a car accident at all - total phony story. What this says is he was injured loading "TastyKakes" or some such sweet cake in 1991. A year later, in 1992, he underwent spinal fusion surgery to fix his injury. The surgery went bad, and three years later, in 1995, he sued everyone involved and made $750,000.