A healthy young woman went to bed after a night out with friends -and woke up paralysed. The terrifying, freak medical condition changed Carolyne Underwood's life forever. After the evening out Carolyne, 25, was woken by searing chest pains and thought she was having a heart attack. She was taken to hospital with dangerously low blood pressure and doctors fought to stabilise her.
Tests revealed she had suffered a spinal cord injury after a blood vessel burst in her back. The bleed cut the signals from her brain leaving her unable to move. She was forced to use a wheelchair.
Slowly she has regained the use of her upper body, although doctors have told her she will be confined to a wheelchair for life.
But Carolyne, from Stalybridge, refuses to give up hope and is saving up for pioneering stem cell treatment. "I am determined to walk again," she said. "The alternative doesn't bear thinking about. Stem cells are my only hope."
The process will involve Carolyne undergoing a series of injections of stem cells taken from the umbilical cord of a newborn baby. It is hoped they will regenerate the damaged nerves.
Source: Manchester Evening News
Tags: Paralysed | Medicine
Comments