Winter 2015 Mark Pollock: FAILURE IS PART OF THE PROCESS “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. alma mater, hosted an exhibition this Inside: Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” That’s year called Fail Better. It was, indeed, • Journey Forward Joins NRN the well-used quote from Irish writer a celebration of trying and not suc- • Consortium Associates Pull Samuel Becket, often now a mantra for ceeding, leading to better tries, better Together entrepreneurs, for writers, for golfers. results. And sometimes better failures. • Albert & Zhigang, Bridging a Scientists, of course are quite familiar Among the exhibits at the show was Generation of Science with failing. “Superman’s Wheelchair,” featuring Trinity College in Dublin, Becket’s Christopher Reeve’s power wheel- chair. It was flown in from the Reeve Foundation offices in New Jersey at the behest of Dubliner Mark Pollock, a member of the Reeve Foundation’s Board of Directors. Pollock suggests Reeve’s empty chair represents both the failure to cure paralysis and the compulsion to pursue progress. Indeed, one could say the fail began in 1994 when a horse missed a jump, a doctor could not fix a broken spine, when an army of therapists could not find a way to help the doctor, or the patient. Pollock is not one to dwell on the failure aspect of pushing boundaries. He encourages a healthy disregard for risk, and for reaching toward the im- possible. When he was 22, Pollock lost his sight. Twelve years later he became an adventure athlete and the first blind person to race to the South Pole. “I spent 12 years filling my life with ex- periences that would sweep the blind- ness to the side,” Pollock wrote. A year and a half after the race, Mark Pollock Pollock fell from a second story win- dow. It nearly killed him. “I broke my back and the damage to my spinal cord left me paralyzed. Now I am inspired by the vision of another explorer – Continued on page 3 Progress in Research – Winter 2015 Journey Forward Joins NRN as Community Fitness Program “Exercise is the number one key rehab and training. This year, Journey facility, Walters says he and Cummings ingredient for a happier, healthier and Forward became the newest Community “wanted to be part of something bigger, longer life.” That’s the word from Dan Fitness and Wellness program within to push innovation and to be part of the Cummings, a C6 quadriplegic who the Reeve Foundation NeuroRecovery evolution of the activity based therapy credits his aggressive rehab program for Network® (NRN). industry. ” That led them to the re- recovery of walking, with a walker. The NRN is a network of leading search-based NRN. “Being involved with Cummings, injured in a shallow rehabilitation centers that cooperate to the NRN, and the team of scientists and water diving accident in 2000, wanted provide and develop therapies to pro- clinicians in the network, this provides us more than the outlook his therapists mote functional recovery and improve with tremendous expertise.” presented him. “They gave me a wheel- the health and quality of life for people Once accepted in the program, the chair and wanted to teach me how to living with paralysis. Journey Forward staff was trained first at live in it. But I wanted more.” He had to The Journey Forward approach the Kessler Institute, an NRN site, and travel from Boston to California to find matches that of the NRN: Rehab is later at the University of Louisville (the a program that matched his ambition; long-term. “Traditionally, after the main NRN hub). Cummings spent four years at Project first six months of a spinal cord injury, Aligning with the NRN gives the pro- Walk, in Carlsbad. “I went in say a ten,” people are given little to no hope of gram credibility, said Walters, especially he said. “I came out at about a 90.” increasing their independence,” says among other health care institutions in Cummings moved back to the East John Walters, co-founder and Program the Boston area. Spaulding Rehab in Coast and began to wonder, why is there Director of Journey Forward, recruited Boston has begun referring patients, he by Cummings to help said. And the Journey Forward team is start the program. “We working with Boston College to see how don’t believe this is aggressive rehab might affect hospital true; given the correct stays, or how it might reduce secondary stimulus, some people health issues such as pressure sores. with SCI can improve, It’s not all about walking but about and many continue recovery toward health and indepen- to get better. Physical dence, says Walters. “Recovery could therapy for most people mean just the little things – recovering is a short-term program enough to get a driver’s license, perhaps of doctor-prescribed being able to move from a power chair to rehab; what we’ve come a manual. For everyone who comes into to know is that spinal the program, there are the benefits of cord injuries take much exercise in promoting overall health and longer to recover.” prevention of secondary complications.” Walters says rehab “Through exercise and activity,” says must be considered a Cummings, “a person has the opportuni- lifelong recovery pro- ty to live a long, healthy life.” cess. “Instead of work- Journey Forward sees about 40 clients ing just on peoples’ a day. For the most part, insurance does strengths, we focus on a not cover this sort of long-term rehab. full body recovery. That “We do what we can to convince insur- includes working on ance companies that this should be paid your weaknesses, too.” for,” says Cummings. “We think they Journey Forward will realize it’s going to save them money geared up quickly, Wal- in the long term.” ters says, with the latest in exercise and rehab NRN Community Programs technology, including Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute, Minneapolis, MN a robotic gait trainer Frazier Rehab Institute, Louisville, KY (Lokomat), functional Working on recovery NextSteps Chicago, Willow Springs, IL electrical stimulation NextStep Fitness, Lawndale, CA no intensive therapy closer to home? So bikes and other specialized exercise gear in 2008 he created Journey Forward, a such as an anti-gravity treadmill. Not Neuroworx, South Jordan, UT Boston non-profit that offers aggressive wanting to simply be a stand-alone Journey Forward, Boston, MA 2 Progress in Research – Winter 2015 from page 1 Christopher Reeve. I am traveling in his tracks.” Pollock is intensely dedicated to recovery, with aggressive physical ther- apy, exoskeleton walking and electrical stimulation. Conventional wisdom says Pollock will always need his wheelchair. He’s not betting on convention. Wrote Pollock: “I believe a cure for spinal cord injury is possible. Success is our objec- tive. And we know that in our pursuit of a wildly ambitious goal, the potential for failure travels with us. If there is no risk of failure, it’s probably not worth pursuing.” “Of all the things I have ever done this has the greatest chance of failure over success. ... We don’t know where the cure is. Out there, somewhere, like the South Pole, I am making the most educated guess available in this world at this time and I am pointing myself in what we hope is the right direction.” For more about Pollock see www. MarkPollock.com Mark Pollock and Christopher Reeve’s chair. Error is an Option: Other Fails From Fail Better The Mars Climate Orbiter: this $125 million project failed in flight because one team used the metric system, the other the imperial. Said NASA in 1998, “People sometimes make errors.” The common fuse: failure is built in to sacrifice a minor component to protect larger system. Another built-in failure: the K1 Syringe: After one use, it won’t work again, thus pr eventing contamination. Transorbital lobotomy: just 50 years ago, ice pick-like devices were used to treat psychiatric illness. Treatment fail. Ethical fail. Fail often: James Dyson worked up 5,127 prototypes before his vacuum cleaner made the grade. Lobotomy tools. Fail. Progress in Research – Winter 2015 3 Consortium Associates Update: Pulling Together Lukas Bachmann is a smart young twice a year and share details of their ty-released conditions (e.g., swimming). scientist with a recently minted Ph.D. work to a degree that rarely happens in Bachmann specifically set out to If he were a young athlete, he would be the competitive world of research. A key improve function after long-term spinal a very high draft pick. He has only had feature of the Consortium, and perhaps cord paralysis. “Most experiments – stem his doctorate about a year but celebrat- its greatest success, is the Associates pro- cells, anti-Nogo, riluzole, Cethrin, etc., ed its arrival as lead author of a very gram. Each lab in the group includes two these are directed toward acute injuries. nice research publication showing how or more Associates – younger scientists Our intention was to develop a chronic, stimulation of the brain can affect motor who have obtained or will soon obtain or sub-chronic model, to see if we could function after chronic spinal cord injury. their doctorates, and who are beginning improve function in the chronic state.” a career specialty in spinal cord That they did. research. So what’s happening here? Bach- The Associates work closely mann’s working hypothesis is that the with the PIs, and handle the stimulation of the brain region associated day-to-day workload of various with locomotor function activates what is Consortium collaborations. The called a central pattern generator (CPG) Associates get the research done, in the undamaged circuitry in the spinal but importantly, most stay cord.