New York Legal Authority
For construction workers in New York, few injuries are more frightening than spinal cord injuries. Damage to a spinal cord can leave a worker with limited ability to walk, place them in a wheel chair, or in the worst cases, leave them a quadriplegic, unable to move without a great deal of very expensive equipment, and unable to fully participate in many activities they may have once taken for granted.
Spinal cord injuries are also notoriously easy to incur on a busy, chaotic, construction worksite. Being struck by heavy equipment or suffering a fall from any height, could easily leave one with a spinal cord injury that results in paraplegia or quadriplegia. Catastrophic construction accidents like these can leave a worker living a very different life than the one they had moment before the accident.
An additional complication of spinal cord injuries is a damaged immune system. The injury leaves the immune system compromised. The condition is known as autonomic dysreflexia, which can lead to suppression of the immune system, high blood pressure, potentially pulmonary embolism, and the risk of stroke or death.
Researchers have found they can restore immune function by use of drugs that inhibit some hormones that autonomic dysreflexia produces. While they don’t fully understand the mechanism of how the drugs work, the succeeded in restoring the immune function in mice.
If this treatment become available for spinal cord injury victims, it hold promise of improving their immune function and reducing their likelihood of dying from some other disease.
Source: Science World Report, “Scientists Reveal Immune Function Can be Restored in Spinal Injured Mice,” Catherine Griffin, August 8, 2013
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Treatment restores immune function in spinal cord injuries
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