HEALTH REPORT - Actor Christopher Reeve Dies

HEALTH REPORT - Actor Christopher Reeve Dies
By Cynthia Kirk

Broadcast: Wednesday, October 20, 2004

This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report.

 
Christopher Reeve.
Actor Christopher Reeve died last week. He was fifty-two years old. He was a movie star who became an activist¹ for people with spinal² cord injuries. Mister Reeve died last Sunday after developing a serious bloodstream infection from a pressure wound. Such a wound can form on the skin of people who are not able to move. The wound became severely³ infected and the infection spread through his body. It caused his major organs to shut down. He suffered a heart attack and went into a coma⁴ at a hospital near his home outside New York City.

Christopher Reeve became famous after starring in the four "Superman" movies in the nineteen seventies and eighties. His life changed in nineteen ninety-five. He was thrown from his horse during a horseback-riding competition. The accident broke his neck, leaving him unable to move his arms or legs. He was paralyzed⁵ from the neck down. He could not breathe without the help of a machine. Doctors said he broke the top two vertebrae in his neck and damaged his spinal cord.

At the time of the accident, doctors said he would probably live only for seven more years because of the severity of his injury.

But Mister Reeve surprised the doctors through his efforts to recover. He began working to strengthen his legs and arms. Doctors used electrical shocks to re-activate his nervous system. In two-thousand, he regained⁷ the ability to move his finger. He later regained some movement and feeling in other parts of his body. And last year, an experimental electric device was placed in his abdomen⁸. It permitted him to breathe without a respirator for hours at a time.

After his accident, Christopher Reeve promised himself that he would walk again. He used his fame to raise millions of dollars for research into spinal cord injuries. He worked to get better protection for people with long-term disabilities. And he led efforts to increase funding for stem⁶ cell research. Many scientists believe such research may lead to cures for paralysis⁹ and other conditions, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Some research has shown that stem cells could help paralyzed mice and rats to move again.

Experts say about two hundred fifty thousand Americans suffer from paralysis.

This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Gwen Outen.

1 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

2 spinal   

adj.针的，尖刺的，尖刺状突起的；adj.脊骨的，脊髓的

参考例句：

• After three days in Japan,the spinal column becomes extraordinarily flexible.在日本三天，就已经使脊椎骨变得富有弹性了。
• Your spinal column is made up of 24 movable vertebrae.你的脊柱由24个活动的脊椎骨构成。

3 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

4 coma   

n.昏迷，昏迷状态

参考例句：

• The patient rallied from the coma.病人从昏迷中苏醒过来。
• She went into a coma after swallowing a whole bottle of sleeping pills.她吃了一整瓶安眠药后就昏迷过去了。

5 paralyzed   

adj.瘫痪的

参考例句：

• He is paralyzed as the result of a would-be assassin's bullet years ago. 几年前有人对他行刺未遂，但子弹使他瘫痪了。
• But the very imminence of the emergency paralyzed his invention. Good! 常言说得好，急中生智，可汤姆这回却束手无策，对，就这么办。

6 stem   

n.茎，干，船首，词干，血统；vt.堵住，阻止，抽去梗；vi.起源于，发生

参考例句：

• Cut the stem cleanly,just beneath a leaf joint.把茎切整齐点，正好切在叶根下。
• The ship was in a blaze from stem to stern.整艘船从头到尾都着火了。

7 regained   

复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地

参考例句：

• The majority of the people in the world have regained their liberty. 世界上大多数人已重获自由。
• She hesitated briefly but quickly regained her poise. 她犹豫片刻，但很快恢复了镇静。

8 abdomen   

n.腹，下腹(胸部到腿部的部分)

参考例句：

• How to know to there is ascarid inside abdomen?怎样知道肚子里面有蛔虫？
• He was anxious about an off-and-on pain the abdomen.他因时隐时现的腹痛而焦虑。

9 paralysis   

n.麻痹(症)；瘫痪(症)

参考例句：

• The paralysis affects his right leg and he can only walk with difficulty.他右腿瘫痪步履维艰。
• The paralysis affects his right leg and he can only walk with difficulty.他右腿瘫痪步履维艰。