CALGARY – A former young hockey player with a life-changing injury from a bus accident four years ago is getting the boost he has been waiting for two years. Ryan Straschnitzki, 22, is one of four people with a spinal cord injury in Calgary this week to reprogram epidural stimuli into their spine. Straschnitzki was paralyzed from the chest down when a bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League collided with a truck in 2018. Sixteen people were killed and 13 others were injured. He was implanted with an epidural stimulator in the spine in Thailand in 2019. The device, which looks like a smartphone, sends electric currents to the spinal cord to try to stimulate the nerves and move the limbs. A planned upgrade – complete with mapping of complex nerve-muscle interaction – was delayed by two years due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. “I’m glad they finally did it. It’s just finding new things that work, because over time your body adapts to certain stimuli,” Straschnitzki told the Canadian Press on Tuesday. “It’s unbelievable. I managed to keep my body healthy and my legs healthy; for the opportunity to walk again,” he said. “I think it would be more successful (than) if I did not do the treatment.” Straschnitzki, who hopes to excel in sleigh hockey, has worked with a doctor and physiotherapist from Thailand and another physiotherapist from Calgary. “Sometimes, when (the stimulus) is set to a certain level, I can feel it vibrate and tighten my body like that… it’s too much, and there are times when I feel absolutely nothing, so it’s to find that happy medium. “ Upon his return from Thailand, Straschnitzki was able to stand on his own and take a few steps with a walker. Dr. Richi Gill, a surgeon in Calgary, broke his neck in a horrific accident on a surfboard during a family vacation in Hawaii four years ago. He said his implant allowed him to take auxiliary steps and regulate his blood pressure, but needed some maintenance. “I can say that some of the programs I had are not working very well right now and need to be updated,” Gill said. He also understands that technology still has a long way to go. “The biggest limitation is just the hardware of the technology. It can only do so much because it has not been further adapted for this purpose. It is something like the flip-phone version.” Dr. Nasir Majeed traveled from Bangkok to oversee the redesign and was a member of the medical team that installed Straschnitzki’s original stimulator. He said the upgrade would ensure that the programs would continue to work well. “Maybe not mapping from scratch, but more changes that can improve patient function,” said Majeed, medical director and lead researcher at Verita Neuro, a global provider of advanced spinal cord injury treatment with clinics in Thailand and Mexico. . Majeed said his team will also train members of the Synaptic Spinal Cord Injury and Neurotherapy Center so they can do part of the maintenance and mapping on their own. Uyen Nguyen, founder and CEO of Synaptic, said the Calgary service facility will make things easier for the clinic’s clients. “Knowing that it has the potential to come to Canada and move the dial to research – and ultimately improve the lives of people with spinal cord injuries – is absolutely fascinating,” he said. This Canadian Press report was first published on March 30, 2022 Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press
