Living with Quadriplegia

Quadriplegia is a type of spinal cord injury. Quadriplegia occurs from being in a car accident or a sporting accident. A tumor can also cause quadriplegia.

The part of the spinal cord inside the neck has become injured. It causes loss of feeling and movement in arms, legs, and the center of the body. Letters and numbers are used to describe where the spinal cord was injured. For example, the letter ‘C’ stands for cervical or neck. There are 8 cervical, 12 thoracic, 5 lumbar, and 4 sacral bones. A C3 spinal cord injury means the damage is at the third cervical spinal cord section. The injuries can be complete or incomplete. A complete injury means all movement ability is lost while incomplete means that not all movement ability was lost. The symptoms vary based on the extent of the damage.

Some symptoms are:

• Limp muscles, especially in the arms or the legs
• Loss of control over bowel and bladder
• Low blood pressure
• Trouble breathing or unable to breathe without help
• Unable to move anything below the damaged area

A care team helps people with quadriplegia learn to live with quadriplegia. The team includes:

• Regular doctor
• Neurologist
• Psychologist
• Physical, Occupational, and Respiratory therapists
• Social worker
• Speech pathologist-a speech pathologist becomes involved if a person has a tracheostomy and needs assistance in communicating and swallowing. A tracheostomy is a tube that is inserted in the windpipe to aid in breathing.

While some people may believe people living with quadriplegia have a low quality of life, many people who live with quadriplegia feel differently. Christopher Reeve lived almost 10 years after his severe spinal cord injury. While he felt his time after his injury was difficult, he also felt it was an extraordinary journey. There are many other success stories as well that show that life still goes on after an injury. People living with quadriplegia can still be active and do things they loved before like off-roading, adaptive wakeboarding, and working out. The extent to which these can be achieved depends on the level. All injuries are unique.