彭蒙惠英语：New Hope for Spinal Cord Injuries（在线收听）

New Hope for Spinal Cord Injuries

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The recovery

Aggressive rehabilitation is as important, if not more so, than the surgery, Lima says.

Erica Nader’s recovery has been slow but steady. She works out like an Olympian in training: five hours, three days a week and at least two hours a day the rest of the week. She can sense the days when she can push a little more and others when she shouldn’t press too much.

To stand, let alone walk, Nader demands that every muscle in her body feel just right. Her hips must be centered, her feet spaced apart just right, her back straight. And when she moves, her weight must land on her heels, not her toes.

Walking is her goal. For now, she accepts knowing she is much stronger and much more capable of lifting her arms, bending her knees on a slanted exercise board and standing erect. She works for every inch of her recovery.

Three years ago, she had no finger movements. Now, she can lift a water bottle to her mouth for a swig, or feed herself. In the last six months, she’s started to walk in leg braces with a walker or on a treadmill, tasks assisted by a therapist, friend or family member. She uses full-length mirrors to gain visual clues to assist her movements.

“It’s hard work,” says Bill Thornton, her physical therapist at the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan. Typically, gait patterns take three to seven years to learn, he says.

Erica and her father have helped raise thousands of dollars for spinal cord research and rehabilitation therapy. Fred Nader, whose life has been consumed by his daughter’s recovery since her accident, is studying ways to steamroll advances in spinal cord injury research. And he calls Erica a stimulant, a champion.

“It takes a spark for progress to happen, and that’s what she is,” he says.

Vocabulary Focus

rehabilitation (n) [5ri:(h)E7bili5teiFEn] regular treatments to help cure a medical problem

every inch (idiom) all of a thing; every little bit of something

steamroll (v) [5sti:m7rEul] to move or proceed with a forceful effort so that one cannot be stopped

Specialized Terms

walker (n) 助行器 a metal frame with legs which one places in front of oneself and leans on to help move forward if one has difficulty walking

gait (n) 步态，步法 a particular way of walking