Moving forward

For some with spinal injuries, Project Walk exercise program returns mobility

By PATTY McCORMAC For the North County Times | Saturday, April 19, 2008 10:41 PM PDT ∞

Jennifer McCallson, 28, a competitive cheerleader, collided with another cheerleader doing back flips in the summer of 1999. She broke her neck and was paralyzed from the neck down.

Last year, Brent Thomas, 26, was sitting on a retaining wall and fell over backward into the street. He broke his neck and was paralyzed from the neck down.

Hal Hargrave,18, was in a rollover traffic accident in July 2007. He too was left paralyzed.

They are just three of the hundreds who have come to Project Walk in Carlsbad in hopes of regaining their ability to walk.

Some do. Some never will. But the organization offers hope to those who have been told to get used to life in a wheelchair.

Doctors told Hargrave he had a 1 to 3 percent chance of walking again after his accident.

"I'm here to prove them wrong, and this is the place I'm going to do it," said the Los Angeles County resident during a recent workout at Project Walk. He said his core muscles (torso) are getting stronger, and spasms are increasing in his legs that he hopes will translate into movement.

Project Walk does not work for everyone and there are no guarantees, but there have been some incredible successes over the last nine years. Some of them can be seen standing, holding a wheelchair over their heads, in pictures on the walls of Project Walk on Loker Street.

"We are not doing therapy. We are not doing anything medical," said Ted Dardzinski, founder of Project Walk. "This is a gym. We focus on clients who have spinal cord injuries."

Formally known as the Project Walk Institute of Spinal Cord Injury Recovery, the program is dedicated to exploring, expanding, improving and setting the standard in the field of spinal-cord injury recovery. Project Walks have recently opened in Portland, Ore., and Boston.

Approximately 250,000 to 400,000 individuals in the United States have spinal cord injuries, according to the National Spinal Cord Injury Foundation. Every year, approximately 11,000 people sustain new spinal cord injuries which is 30 new injuries every day. Most of these people are injured in auto and sports accidents, falls, and industrial mishaps. An estimated 60 percent of these individuals are 30 or younger, and most are men.

Dardzinski said he believes that the spinal cord has the ability to repair itself.

"Ten years ago, that was unheard-of," he said.

'Nerves wake up'

Not everyone in the mainstream medical community is sold on the Project Walk program.

"Generally speaking, in the case of an individual who has a little bit of movement, he has a better chance of training and developing significant useful function" in their arms and legs, said Dr. Jerome Stenehjem, medical director of Sharp Rehabilitation Center in San Diego. A person who has no movement is much less likely in training, no matter how much training, to have results in improved function, he said.

"However, for reasons we can't explain, some people have nerves wake up," he said, and this allows for some level of recovery.

"Exercise does not cause the nerves to wake up," Stenehjem said. "Exercise can help with some of the body's adaptive responses, such as increasing the strength of weak muscles that can be changed from non-functioning to functional muscle, but this does not necessarily translate into walking.

"In regards to heavy-training types of programs, like Project Walk, I feel responsible not to dash the hopes of patients, but also not to engage (them) in a process that is time-consuming and expensive with little likelihood of helping them," Stenehjem said.

"I would suggest or recommend to a person that they enter this area of treatment with eyes wide open," he said.

Dardzinski responds by saying that conventional medical wisdom changes constantly.

"In the 1950s, after a person had a heart attack, doctors gave him back his cigarettes and whisky and sent him home to rest. Now exercise is a major component of a patient's recovery," he said.

Treatment after a stroke, he said, has also now gone from "stay home and rest" to including an exercise program.

Dardzinski said in 10 years, he expects what he is doing now with clients will be common and that doctors will routinely refer their patients to programs such as his, because the best time to start rehabilitation is soon after the accident, when the muscles have not yet atrophied and the body has not learned to sit in a wheelchair.

Personalized exercise

Dardzinski said when a client enters Project Walk, he or she is a blank canvas. After an initial visit, each has a personalized exercise regimen. Then they are sent home to work on their plans while keeping in touch with their coaches in Carlsbad, either online or over the telephone. If possible, the client returns a few times a year so that progress can be measured and exercises adjusted.

Dardzinski said 90 percent of his clients are home-based and many are from other states and countries. He said he keeps no statistics on his clients and their success or failure rates.

Brent Thomas, the youth who broke his neck falling off the wall, and his mother, Linda, travel from South Carolina to take part in the program.

They came to Project Walk in September 2007 and returned home with an exercise program to work on. Now, in January, Thomas has full movement on the upper left side of his body.

"Now you know why we come back all the way from South Carolina," said Linda Brent.

However, the ones who live locally, like McCallson, can come to the gym on a regular basis.

Insurance does not cover the program, and yes, it is expensive at $100 an hour, but Dardzinski said one of the reasons is that staff outnumbers the clients. Because most of the clients are paralyzed, they must be muscled from one spot to another and held upright, which can require the strength of several people.

McCallson, a Carlsbad resident, was in a wheelchair for five years before she heard of Project Walk. After three years as a client, she can now roll over by herself and use her arms to pull herself out of her wheelchair and move to another chair. That was a memorable day for her.

"It was the most amazing thing," McCallson said, her eyes filling with tears. "It was so awesome."

She said it is "affirmation" that what she is doing is working.

Nine years ago

Dardzinski's experience with those with spinal cord injuries began nine years ago with Del Mar resident Mike Thomas, who was in an auto accident near Miami. He was badly injured. Doctors at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami told him they would teach him how to live in a wheelchair, said his wife, Betsy.

"Mike was physically fit and athletic at 54 years old. He was willing to do anything to get better," she said. "I am a motivated person who was willing to try anything, too. We brought in a shaman from South America, we did reiki healing, acupuncture ---- everything ---- alternative methods along with traditional methods."

They decided to seek out an athletic coach and found Dardzinski, who had a gym in Del Mar. Betsy called him and told him that her husband had been in an accident and needed some exercise.

"He was horrified when he saw Mike in a wheelchair," she said. He told the couple he did not work with spinal cord injuries and had no medical knowledge about them.

But, she said, Dardzinski knows muscles and the nervous system, and believed that the muscle spasms Mike was having would translate into movement of his legs.

Dardzinski decided to go ahead and train Thomas, and if he could not eventually walk, at least he would be as physically fit as he could be.

Still, a caution

Today, Mike walks. He walks with sticks and it is still a labored walk, but he walks and is one of the photos on the wall holding a wheelchair over his head.

Still, medical professionals urge caution.

Dr. Michael Scott is chief of the spinal cord injury program and department chairman for rehabilitation at Rancho Los Amigos Rehabilitation Center in Downey. He said people will spend all their time and money and do anything to walk again.

"It is important for them to ask very plain questions. They (Project Walk) shouldn't promise anything they can't deliver on people in vulnerable situations," he said. "As consumers with spinal cord injuries, it may not be for everyone and they need to take a close look to decide if they want to spend their time and money on what I saw. It wasn't cheap," Scott said.

Patty McCormac is a freelance writer.

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