Latest news with #ShirleyRyanAbilityLab
Chicago Tribune
21-04-2025
- Health
- Chicago Tribune
Oak Forest teen shot in Mexico continues recovery at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab; mother works on long-term care plan
An Oak Forest teen shot while vacationing in Mexico continues to recover at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago, back closer to home after surgery in Mexico and procedures at a Texas hospital. His mother, Ana Cabral, said she's grateful to have him closer to home, but the past few months have been overwhelming, both emotionally and financially, after she quit her job to care for her son following the December shooting that killed his father, uncle and cousin. Jason Peña, 14, is undergoing an intensive eight-week therapy program at the rehabilitation center as he works to regain motor functions lost after he was shot in the head and fell into a coma that lasted several weeks, Cabral said. While he's shown small signs of progress, such as slight movement in his arms and legs, doctors cautioned only about 30% of his brain may still function due to the severity of the injury, she said. Jason has not regained the ability to speak or eat on his own and will need extensive therapy to recover control of his arms and legs, Cabral said. 'He's trying really, really hard,' she said. 'Half of his body doesn't really move, but the other half is trying to move. So for me, right now, therapy is key, and then after that I decided to take him home.' Jason Peña, his father, Vicente Peña Jr., his uncle, Antonio Fernández, and a third man, Jorge Eduardo Vargas Aguirre, were shot Dec. 27 on a highway near the town of Las Palmas, authorities in Mexico said. Jason was the only one to survive the shooting. An eighth grader at Prairie-Hills Junior High School in Markham, Jason was in Mexico to visit relatives and celebrate his birthday with his father, uncle and brother, according to Cabral. He was shot just two days before turning 14, she said. After the shooting, Jason underwent surgery in Mexico to remove the bullet shell, followed by procedures at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston after he was airlifted to the U.S., Cabral said. There, doctors treated him for hydrocephalus, a buildup of fluid in the brain. Jason still relies on a tracheostomy, a feeding tube and remains on a ventilator, she said. Despite the challenges, Cabral said she's seen steady progress during his rehabilitation and believes he's doing the best he can. 'It's just a matter of time, and how much effort he wants to put into it, which he's putting all the effort,' Cabral said. 'I talk to him, I try to reassure him, you know, like, 'Hey, you can do this. You got this.' I'm always there behind him, telling him that he can do this. And, you know, he smiles.' Cabral said Jason's care team at Shirley Ryan is working toward gradually weaning him off the ventilator to help him begin breathing on his own. He's now able to take assisted showers, is participating in speech therapy and will soon undergo swallow evaluations to determine whether he can begin eating soft foods like applesauce and purees, she said. Before arriving at Shirley Ryan, Cabral said they were stuck in Houston, waiting for Medicaid approval to cover Jason's transfer to Advocate Children's Hospital in Oak Lawn. Jason was set to be added to his father's health insurance, but at the time of the shooting, Peña was transitioning to a new job, leaving Jason uninsured during the 90-day waiting period, she said. After several long weeks away from her family, Cabral finally received insurance approval and was able to bring Jason to Oak Lawn. Although she was offered several options for rehabilitation, she chose to wait for an opening at Shirley Ryan, and Jason has received care there since April 1, she said. 'He's doing amazing,' Cabral said. 'They have amazing therapists, amazing nurses and stuff. So to me, it has been worth the wait. Although it's far from home…it's worth it to see him doing a little bit better.' After Jason is released, Cabral said she hopes to host an eighth grade graduation party for him. She's working with his middle school to have his diploma sent to their home so they can still celebrate the milestone together. 'He was super excited about graduating this year,' she said. Cabral said she has to figure out the next steps for his long-term care. Because she didn't have insurance at the time of the shooting, she has already incurred significant medical expenses, including the cost of Jason's treatment at Texas Children's Hospital, which she said will have to be paid out of pocket.. Cabral lives in Oak Forest with Jason and his younger brother. As a single mother and registered nurse, she's been out of work for months to care for Jason and was unable to qualify for unemployment since she left her job voluntarily. Now, she's quickly running out of funds. While she's been preparing for Jason's release, she's also faced mounting costs for essential medical equipment, including a wheelchair ramp, supplies to help him move around the house and possibly a ventilator or feeding equipment, depending on his needs, she said. She's also anticipating the need to hire a caregiver so she can return to work. 'It's hard to do anything right now,' Cabral said. 'I have to try to find another contract once I get everything squared away, once they tell me 'Here's what you're going to need for home.' I'm not sure how I'm going to cover all of it, but I need to return to work as soon as I can.' Cabral is raising money on crowdfunding website Spotfund to pay for his care. In January, the attorney general of Durango announced Iram Uranga Armendáriz was arrested in connection with the shooting. He 'agreed to an abbreviated procedure' which resulted in a sentence of 66 years, 7 months, and 9 days in prison, according to the attorney general. He was also ordered to pay a fine of about $25,000 and damages of about $184,000, authorities said. Authorities in Mexico said Uranga Armendáriz shot Fernández, Peña, Vargas Aguirre and Jason at a highway junction near the town of Las Palmas. Earlier, Uranga Armendáriz spoke to Fernández and Peña about a $250,000 debt they owed him after giving them an advance on the purchase of a piece of land in the mountains of the nearby Altares community, which he no longer wanted to purchase, authorities said. Cabral said Mexican authorities still have Jason's and his father's belongings, and she's waiting to find out whether Uranga Armendáriz has filed an appeal. For now, though, her focus remains on Jason's recovery. 'The main thing for me is for him to get better,' she said. 'Because if he's doing better, that means I'll be doing better as well.'
Fox News
15-04-2025
- Health
- Fox News
Illinois HS athlete suffers horrific injury while warming up for triple jump
An Illinois high school track athlete suffered an unimaginable injury while warming up for the triple jump at a meet last month. Dylan Westcott, of Rock Falls High School, broke his neck in a freak accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down. The 18-year-old has been rehabbing at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and has been able to sit in a wheelchair since about a week after the March 15 catastrophe. Rock Falls High School head track coach Eric Bontz shared the horrific details in an interview with KWQC-TV. "He was warming up in the triple jump, just doing run throughs, and as he was going through the sand, he tripped either over his own feet or over the sand, and kind of stumbled, and was kind of running as he was stumbling, and just fell head first into the wall," Bontz said. Wescott went through 12 hours of surgery immediately after the accident, according to the Daily Gazette. He had two cages inserted to stabilize his neck with a vertebra was replaced with a titanium plate. "You go from being a normal, happy family with, everybody talking about future plans and graduation, prom -- he just got accepted to study to be a vet tech after high school -- and then seeing him in a wheelchair, not able to do a lot of the things that he used to do," Westcott's aunt, Kim Wescott Kilday, told the station. "It really hurts." Wescott's family and coach have praised his resiliency. A GoFundMe has raised more than $22,000 to help with medical expenses. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
NervGen Pharma to Host Virtual Investor Event
Key opinion leaders and company management will discuss the current spinal cord injury treatment landscape and NervGen's Phase 1b/2a clinical trial evaluating NVG-291 in individuals with spinal cord injury VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 25, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NervGen Pharma Corp. (TSX-V: NGEN) (OTCQB: NGENF), a clinical-stage biotech company dedicated to developing neurorestorative therapeutics, today announced that it will host a virtual investor event on Wednesday, April 9, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. ET. To register for the event, click here. The event will feature key opinion leaders, Monica Perez, PT, Ph.D. (Shirley Ryan AbilityLab) and Steven Kirshblum, MD (Rutgers New Jersey Medical School), who will join company management to discuss the unmet medical need and current treatment landscape for individuals with spinal cord injury. Ahead of clinical data expected in the second quarter for the company's Phase 1b/2a proof-of-concept, double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial, the event will highlight the study design and provide an overview of endpoints being measured, including electrophysiology. NervGen will also review data from preclinical trials evaluating NVG-291-R and the Phase 1 trial evaluating safety of NVG-291, NervGen's first-in-class therapeutic peptide targeting nervous system repair, in chronic and subacute SCI. A live question and answer session will follow the formal presentations. About Monica A. Perez, PT, PhDMonica A. Perez, PT, PhD, is the Scientific Chair of the Arms + Hands Lab at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, a Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Northwestern University, and a Research Scientist at the Edward Jr. Hines VA Hospital. Dr. Perez has studied neural mechanisms contributing to the control of voluntary movement in healthy humans and in people with spinal cord injury for more than 15 years. Her research aims to understand how the brain and spinal cord contribute to the control of movement with the ultimate goal of using this mechanistic information to develop more effective rehabilitation therapies for people with spinal cord injury. This theme is mainly investigated from a neurophysiological point of view, using a combination of transcranial magnetic stimulation, magnetic resonance imaging, electrical stimulation, and behavioral techniques. About Steven Kirshblum, MDSteven Kirshblum, MD, is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and the program director for the Spinal Cord Injury Medicine Fellowship. He also serves as the chief medical officer for the Kessler Foundation and the co-director of the Foundation's Tim and Caroline Reynolds Center for Spinal Stimulation. Dr. Kirshblum is the project co-director of the Northern New Jersey Spinal Cord Injury Model System, one of only 18 federally designated centers in the country. Dr. Kirshblum also serves as chief medical officer for Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation. About Phase 1b/2a TrialThe double-blind, placebo-controlled proof-of-concept Phase 1b/2a clinical trial (NCT05965700) evaluates the safety and efficacy of NVG-291 in two separate cohorts of individuals with cervical spinal cord injury: chronic (1-10 years post-injury) and subacute (20-90 days post-injury), given demonstrated efficacy in preclinical models of both chronic and acute spinal cord injury. The trial is designed to evaluate the efficacy of a fixed dose of NVG-291 using multiple clinical outcome measures as well as objective electrophysiological and MRI imaging measures and blood biomarkers that together will provide comprehensive information about the extent of recovery of function, with a focus on improvements in motor function. Specifically, the primary objective is to assess the change in corticospinal connectivity of defined upper and lower extremity muscle groups following treatment based on changes in motor evoked potential amplitudes. Secondary and exploratory objectives are to evaluate changes in a number of clinical outcome assessments focusing on motor function and strength, as well as changes in additional electrophysiological measurements. The cohorts will be comprised of approximately 20 subjects each and will be evaluated independently as the data becomes available. The trial is being partially funded by a grant from Wings for Life, which is being provided in several milestone-based payments and will offset a portion of the direct costs of this clinical trial. About NVG-291NervGen holds exclusive worldwide rights to NVG-291, a first-in-class therapeutic peptide targeting nervous system repair. NVG-291's technology was licensed from Case Western Reserve University and is based on academic studies demonstrating the preclinical efficacy of NVG-291-R, the rodent prototype of NVG-291, in animal models of spinal cord injury. Effects of NVG-291-R reported in multiple independent academic studies include the promotion of neuroplasticity, remyelination, anti-inflammatory polarization of microglia, and functional improvement in preclinical models of spinal cord injury, stroke, and peripheral nervous system injury. NVG-291 has received Fast Track designation in spinal cord injury from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. About NervGenNervGen (TSXV: NGEN, OTCQB: NGENF) is a clinical-stage biotech company dedicated to developing innovative treatments to promote nervous system repair in settings of neurotrauma and neurologic disease. The company is testing the clinical efficacy of its lead molecule, NVG-291, in a Phase 1b/2a clinical trial in spinal cord injury and has initiated preclinical evaluation of a new development candidate, NVG-300, in models of ischemic stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and spinal cord injury. For more information, visit and follow NervGen on X, LinkedIn, and Facebook for the latest news on the company. Contacts Bill Adams, Chief Financial Officerinfo@ Mike MoyerManaging Director, LifeSci Advisors, LLCmmoyer@ Schull or Ignacio Guerrero-Ros, Note Regarding Forward-Looking StatementsThis news release may contain 'forward-looking information' and 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation (collectively, 'forward-looking statements'). Such forward-looking statements herein include but are not limited to, the Company's current and future plans, expectations and intentions, results, levels of activity, performance, goals or achievements, or any other future events or developments constitute forward-looking statements, and the words 'may', 'will', 'would', 'should', 'could', 'expect', 'plan', 'intend', 'trend', 'indication', 'anticipate', 'believe', 'estimate', 'predict', 'likely' or 'potential', or the negative or other variations of these words or other comparable words or phrases, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements relating to: the subject matter to be presented at the virtual investor event; the objectives, planned clinical endpoints, timing, expected rate of enrollment, and timing of data readout and study design of our Phase 1b/2a clinical trial of NVG-291 in individuals with spinal cord injury; the development plans, timelines, expected benefits, and prospective target indications for NVG-300; the receipt of the milestone-based grant payments; and the creation of neurorestorative therapeutics to promote nervous system repair in settings of neurotrauma and neurologic disease. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions made by the company in light of management's experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that we believe are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances. In making forward-looking statements, we have relied on various assumptions, including, but not limited to: our ability to obtain future funding on favourable terms or at all; the accuracy of our financial projections; obtaining positive results in our clinical and other trials; our ability to obtain necessary regulatory approvals; our ability to arrange for the manufacturing of our product candidates and technologies; and general business, market and economic conditions. Many factors could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements or future events or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including without limitation, a lack of revenue, insufficient funding, reliance upon key personnel, the uncertainty of the clinical development process, competition, and other factors set forth in the "Risk Factors" section of the company's most recently filed prospectus supplement, short form base shelf prospectus, annual information form, financial statements and management discussion and analysis all of which can be found on NervGen's profile on SEDAR+ at All clinical development plans are subject to additional funding. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements made in this news release. Furthermore, unless otherwise stated, the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release, and we have no intention and undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Chicago firefighter paralyzed on duty released from medical care after 4 months
A Chicago firefighter who was injured on-duty and partially paralyzed last October was released from medical care Thursday. His fellow firefighters surprised him with a hero's send-off. Chicago firefighter John Anderson left the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab after nearly four months. Anderson had been rehabbing from a catastrophic on-duty injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down. More News, Weather and Headlines at 'It was 108 days,' he said 'It's just kind of a new chapter, but getting stronger every day.' He was greeted with a firewall of support on his departure. More than two dozen members of the Chicago Fire Department who were ready with fist bumps and firm hugs. 'It was surreal,' Anderson said. 'I couldn't believe all the support they gave me. I mean, what happened to me was surreal, but I couldn't get through it without all their help.' Since his injury while responding to a fire last October, he's been undergoing grueling rehabilitation at the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab in downtown Chicago. It's a long way from his firehouse in Burnside, Chicago's smallest neighborhood nestled on the South Side. There, the 50-year-old served the department on Truck 42. 'It's great to see him coming out looking strong,' Capt. Chris Steinmetz said. 'And he's had a positive attitude his whole way through which has been amazing, just good to see him make it here and doing so well, still.' From the time Anderson was a boy, the CFD seemed to be calling him to duty. He represented the fourth generation of his family to serve Chicago as a firefighter. Now, his 24-year career comes to an end, as he says, and a new chapter begins. 'It's amazing. I'd just like to thank them all. The fire department's been amazing, a great bunch of guys,' he said. Anderson was the oldest member of his firehouse and was viewed as a sort of father-figure. As he left the facility, he offered some fatherly advice telling his supporters, 'Listen to the older guys. There's wisdom in experience.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
