Chip Jacobs

Gordon, had he been injured today instead of 1940, would’ve had these extreme sorts burying their eyes. Even so, the things he survived as a quadriplegic still astonish. He just wasn’t getting as much air as these pros. Happy Holidays everyone, and if you get a chance, please check out Wheeling the Deal: the Outrageous [...]

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ROME – A group of European scientists say they have successfully connected a robotic hand to a man who had lost an arm, allowing him to feel sensations in the artificial hand and control it with his thoughts. Story link I can only imagine how fast my uncle, Gordon Zahler, would’ve signed up for this [...]

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Here’s an overshadowed story that should wise up the medical community and the politicians. “Surprising new research says nearly 1.3 million Americans are living with a spinal-cord injury, five times more than previous estimates. Overall, 5.5 million people in the U.S. have some degree of paralysis due to a variety of neurologic problems, from multiple [...]

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You know. The ones God inserted into our DNA. Cells that grow into any type of cell in the human body. The cells that doctors believe possess extraordinary capacity to cure or at least greatly heal folks with Parkinson’s, Alzheimers, Diabetes and spinal cord injuries. Nothing is certain. There’ll be setbacks. Caution must be excercised. [...]

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From a fascinating AP story: NEW YORK – Monkeys taught to play a computer game were able to overcome wrist paralysis with an experimental device that might lead to new treatments for patients with stroke and spinal cord injury. Remarkably, the monkeys regained use of paralyzed muscles by learning to control the activity of just [...]

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Four years ago, when I wrote this cover story for Los Angeles CityBeat about my day down there, Rancho was on the precipice, too expensive for the county’s ailing healthcare system to manage and too shaky to attract outside investors. Since then, Rancho has associated itself with USC, sparing thousands of people with spinal cord [...]

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This is the Kevin Everett story in Sports Illustrated. It still gives me goosebanks to see how someone who probably never would’ve walked and likely faced an abbreviated life a few decades ago is now up and around and walking on his own — a month after his injury! The doctors who treated the Buffalo [...]

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Yes, it can. Christopher Reeve’s computer-enhanced, Superbowl-Y2000 commerical packed an emotional punch fraught with hope, bravery, and more than a smidge of controversy. By presenting himself as someone convinced he could overcome one of the most devastating injuries a person can sustain by physical rehabilitaton and breakthrough treatments, he tacitly implied to millions of other [...]

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