As Mr. Reynolds was on his way to work on December 14, 1992 his car was struck from the rear. The accident had dislocated a vertebra in the middle of his back which was also pinching his spinal cord. A bone that pinches your spinal cord is usually untreatable and leaves the affected person unable to walk.
After 3 years Mr. Reynolds was spending anywhere from 21 to 24 hours a day in bed, could only walk 80 feet, and was in a great deal of pain. During this time he saw a movie entitled Lorenzo's Oil* that he credits as one of the driving factors to motivating him to learn everything he could about neuroscience, neurosurgery, spinal cords, interventions, and everything associated with his particular injury. Mr. Reynolds quickly learned that his three time a week 45 minute long sessions were not enough and quickly began a daily hours-long regimen and it paid off. Mr. Reynolds can walk today but does not stand still and has some physical problems.
Mr. Reynold's research led him to explore many theories and ideas on how to treat spinal injuries. His research and experiments have led to what may be the first great discovery of the 21st century. Here is a video of Mr. Reynolds explaining just what this discovery is.
I hope that after viewing this video you will agree with me in saying that I hope for the best for Mr. Reynolds and his organization InVivo and I am pulling for his human trials to go perfect, and for people paralyzed to walk again.
As they say, "Necessity is the mother of invention."
*Lorenzo's Oil according to Roger Ebert is a harrowing movie experience. It is, but in the best way. It takes a heartbreaking story and pushes it to the limit, showing us the lengths of courage and imagination that people can summon when they must. The performances, by Susan Sarandon and Nick Nolte, are daring, too: They play a married couple sometimes too exhausted and obsessed to even be nice to one another. But they share a common goal. They want to save their son's life.
When doctors urge a dying patient to have patience while research continues into the cure for their disease, what they are saying is, please be patient enough to wait until after your death while we work on this. That is not much consolation for the parents when the patient is their little boy, stricken in the dawn of life.
Some assume that the doctors know best - as, indeed, usually they do.
Some strike out with anger or denial.
Augusto and Michaela Odone, the real-life models for the parents in "Lorenzo's Oil," went through all of those stages when their son was diagnosed with adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), a rare nerve disease that strikes only little boys and was always fatal. They decided to take matters into their own hands. Knocking on doors, haunting research libraries, reading everything, talking to the parents of other sick children, using intuition, they actually discovered a treatment for the disease, employing humble olive oil.
The last frames of "Lorenzo's Oil" provide a montage of young boys who are healthy and active today, because of the work of the Odones. One doesn't know whether to laugh or weep; their good fortune comes after hundreds of other children were gradually imprisoned inside their own bodies, blind, deaf, unable to touch or taste, because of the disease that was strangling their nervous systems.
What else is there to say but goodnight and goodnight to you Mrs. Amore, wherever you may be.
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