Can paralysis disappear from a high impact hit?

January 23, 2006 12:26 AM

In the show LOST, a character who was previously paralyzed regains full motor skills due (presumably) to the plane crash. Is this possible, or has this ever happened?

This is a common theme in a few shows and movies. Someone who has lost some of their bodily functions gains them back after a high impact hit.

My guess would be that the impact of the crash realigned something in his spine, which is why he was able to walk again.

It seems theoretically possible. Are there documented cases of it happening?

(Side note: I have only seen the first few episodes of season 1, so if it's clarified later in the show, I am unaware of it.)

posted by spiderskull to Science & Nature (13 answers total)

Well, John Locke (character in question) later loses mobility again, to some degree, and believes that it's the island causing it; not necessarily any movement or physical stress imparted as a result of the crash.

And in Family Guy, parapalegic Joe crashes while skiing, stands up, and starts screaming "I'm healed! I can walk" until his son barrels into him and sends him flipping, with a cracking noise on impact. "Sorry, dad." "Just get the chair."

I would suggest you look here, being weary of the many faiths that might have you believe their deities did said healing.

But to more directly answer your question, I would not imagine this possible, unless the nature of the paralysis was some form of pressure on the spinal cord, being jolted out of position by an impact.

If that were the case, it would likely be an injury or form of paralysis otherwise able to be healed by surgery, I would imagine.

I'm not at all a doctor, but I can't imagine (see how much I imagine?) that anything resulting in permanent nerve damage in the spine could possibly be repaired by a jolt—therapy and the like would seem like the only viable means of re-establishing those critical connections and seeing something come from it.

My two cents.
posted by disillusioned at 12:36 AM on January 23, 2006

Someone else will have to answer whether anything like that has ever actually happened. But the kind of paralysis Locke is portrayed as having is, I believe, usually caused by a damaged spinal cord, not merely a misalignment of the spinal column If it were merely misaligned, such that his spinal cord were pinched rather than damaged, then the doctors could probably realign it via surgery or other manipulation. If it required a lot of force, more than the doctors were willing to apply for fear of damaging him further, then it would be very lucky, astronomically so in fact, for him to receive exactly the right amount of force in precisely the right direction in the crash. If something like this were to occur in real life, I would expect he'd probably be in a lot of pain and his legs would be extremely weak from disuse; he would not just hop up and walk around. Surely Jack, a doctor, would easily be able to tell something was up.

So it is unlikely in the extreme at best, and probably virtually impossible, in real life, but then, so is so much else about that show; coincidences verging on the miraculous are a recurring theme.
posted by kindall at 12:41 AM on January 23, 2006

If a woman who has been blind for 25 years can have a heart attack and, as a result, suddenly be able to see....all bets are off.
posted by jaded at 4:17 AM on January 23, 2006

While it isn't about a spontaneous recovery, in searching I found this article detailing Christopher Reeve's partial recovery.

At the very least, it's a fascinating read.

jaded - was this something recent? did I completely miss this somehow? link, please?
posted by zerokey at 4:43 AM on January 23, 2006

(Side note: I have only seen the first few episodes of season 1, so if it's clarified later in the show, I am unaware of it.)

Locke's "recovery" has more to do with him being on the island and servant of the island as opposed to the crash itself.

At some point in Season 2, we're supposed to find out how he got injured.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:34 AM on January 23, 2006

At some point in Season 2, we're supposed to find out how he got injured.

Its true, we have not yet been shown why Locke was in the chair in the first place. Knowing what we do about Locke's backstory, it would not surprise me at all to find out that it was somehow a psychological or even a psychosomatic illness, rather than a physical one.

Until we know what caused him to need to use the chair, we'll never know how/why he was healed -- although Locke certainly believes that the Island "healed" him who knows if that's going to turn out to be true.
posted by anastasiav at 7:20 AM on January 23, 2006

It's been done in other animals; mice IIRC. Basically, there's a protein that is believed to prevent the overgrowth of neurons along the spinal cord (nogo). In mice, researchers disabled this protein in paralyzed mice whom regained nearly full functionality within 6 months.
Reference: Scientific America of the mind from the last quarter of 05' and my developmental biology class.

Also, I remember reading somewhere where researchers were able to cause a regain of functionality in mice & possibly other animals through other techniques, though I can't recall the details.
posted by jmd82 at 7:21 AM on January 23, 2006

odinsdream - I just found this article about the formerly blind woman. Very interesting.
posted by zerokey at 8:15 AM on January 23, 2006

There was a documentary on UK TV a few years ago about the emergency services, where an ambulance taking a man with a heart attack to hospital was hit by a car travelling at speed through an intersection.

The heart attack victim was practically dead, but the paramedic said that the impact of the crash got his heart started again and saved his life.
posted by essexjan at 10:18 AM on January 23, 2006

Haha get it anastasiav? Backstory? Ahh I slay me.
posted by jackofsaxons at 11:07 AM on January 23, 2006

It's quite common when the original neurologic problem was actually caused by conversion disorder.

Precordial thump is a class IIB (not harmful; no proven benefit) intervention in cardiac arrest; a closed fist slammed against the chest is estimated to be equivalent to an 8-30 Joule cardioversion shock. Handy to know, if you don't have a defibrillator to hand.

The idea that whacking somebody on the spinal column could cure their chronic cord-compression paralysis is ridiculous. It makes me sad that these kinds of ideas are out there, contaminating the mentation of people who can't be expected to know any better.
posted by ikkyu2 at 1:08 PM on January 23, 2006

odinsdream:
Blunt trauma to the spinal cord usually causes a) severing of the spinal cord or b) the surrounding tissue to die, including the spinal cord nerves, thus causing paralysis. The idea is that almost all cells in your body are programmed to reproduce. We came to realize that, hey, why can't neurons, too, as they are known not to reproduce particularly well- hence the problem with spinal cord injuries. It's akin to as if cuts didn't heal. The current train of thought is that neurons, specifically of the spinal cord, can reproduce- the trick is to how to get them to do as such. This is where the protein, nogo, comes into play- it is thought to suppress the reproduction of neurons (a very common event in cells) and has been shown that the repression of this protein in mice do allow for the growth of neurons. Thus, mice that experienced spinal cord trauma and were paralyzed can now walk again.
posted by jmd82 at 8:30 PM on January 23, 2006

Not specifically about paralysis, but there's a recent article on the BBC about a deaf man who regained his hearing whilst on a ski lift...

Strange things can - and do - happen...
posted by Chunder at 8:42 AM on January 31, 2006