Alan.Hess@f1000.n261.z1.fidonet.org (Alan Hess) (04/15/91)
Index Number: 14938
[This is from the Spinal Injury Conference]
Why. A simple, yet very important, word. We use it all the time. Here we
are, on the brink of the 2000s. Why are we spinal cord injured still
paralyzed? Why are some of us still needlessly suffering from post SCI pain?
To whom should blame be assigned? I think blame falls squarely on the
shoulders of the medical profession. Due to their ignorance, stubborness, and
outright stupidity in many cases, we are still too often fed the "your
condition is hopeless, you can't feel pain" lines. They are ignorant of the
fact that the central nervous system is capable of regeneration. They are too
stubborn to admit they may be wrong in their prognoses. They are stupid for
not listening to their patients (the people who are living the problem, who,
being individuals, don't always fit textbook models.) Why is this the case?
Over 2,000 years ago, Hippocrates stated that paralysis caused by a fracture
dislocation of the spine was incurable and fatal. He also believed that the
earth was flat, and that the sun revolved around it. Today in 1991, he is
still batting .250. For some reason, doctors refused to question Hippocrate's
prognosis until circumstances forced them to do so. Until World War II, spinal
cord injury was rare, and routinely fatal. During that war, many soldiers
suffered spinal cord injuries, and some of those soldiers had the audacity to
survive after their injuries. This forced the doctors to learn to care for
those patients (ironically, the Hippocratic oath required that they do so). As
we now know, SCI people can, with good care, live as long as an able-bodied
person. Despite what the doctors learned about SCI survival, they refused to
change their opinion on the curability of paralysis. Were it not for survivors
not wanting to spend their lives in wheelchairs, and agitating for cure, cure
research would probably never have begun. As it is, such research has only
gone on for 30 years or so. Why did it take so long to begin? Why don't
somedoctors believe their patients who state that they have pain? Why don't we
have any effective treatments for SCI pain? When will we have these things?
We deserve them. No more "you can't feel it anyway". *adh*
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