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IRL: Schmidt regaining some motor, sensory functions

2 March 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

INDIANAPOLIS-- After a successful transfer to the Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Indy Racing League personality Sam Schmidt has recovered enhanced ability to spontaneously breathe and has begun to gain motor and sensory function below his original level of injury.

Schmidt arrived in St. Louis just five weeks ago after severely injuring his upper spine during an Indy Racing League Open Test in early January at Walt Disney World Speedway in Orlando, Fla. His transition into the Neurorehabilitative Unit occurred just three weeks ago.

According to John W. McDonald, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Spinal Cord Injury Unit and Assistant Professor of Neurology and Neurological Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine, Schmidt has already begun to regain lost vital functions. He regained the ability to breathe on his own and has been off a ventilator and doing extremely well for several weeks.

Devices needed to support Schmidt have now been removed, including tracheotomy and gastric tubes. All difficulties he has previously endured with regulating blood pressure and body temperature have been resolved.

Schmidt, 34, also has begun to demonstrate improvements in his neurological function since being able to participate in the advanced rehabilitative program designed for him by his Washington University spinal-cord injury physicians.

In addition to traditional rehabilitation, Schmidt is participating in a program designed to optimize neural activity in the injured spinal cord and to enhance the ability of the central nervous system to regenerate. This program includes rigorous daily training with functional electrical stimulation, electrically stimulated self-power bicycle and individual muscle stimulators.

Schmidt is also beginning training with partial weight-supported walking using a parachute-type harness and an electrical treadmill. He is also using a bioengineering system that initiates his hands to open and close to enhance activation to the spinal cord.

Schmidt has already undergone two neurosurgical procedures to stabilize his neck vertebral fractures. The first was completed in Orlando and involved anterior spinal fusion between the C-3 and C-4 vertebrae with a bone aliograft to help fuse the two healing vertebrae.

Once he was transferred to St. Louis, Dr. Carl Lauryssen, a neurosurgical member of the Washington University STATeam (spinal trauma assessment and treatment team), performed a posterior spinal fusion procedure to strengthen the C-2 through C-5 vertebrae. This procedure has allowed Schmidt to rapidly advance along his rehabilitative program.

For more information regarding the hospitals Spinal Cord Injury program, visit www.neuro.wustl.edu/sci on the World Wide Web.

For more information regarding Schmidts condition, or to purchase Sam Schmidt-Racing to Recovery T-shirts, visit www.treadwayracing.com on the Internet.

Treadway Racing and the Schmidt family have set up The Sam Schmidt Foundation to ensure stability for the family and provide funds to support spinal-cord injury research and rehabilitation. Donations to the foundation are being accepted at:

The Sam Schmidt Foundation
6017 W. 71st St.
Indianapolis, IN 46278

Please make all checks payable directly to The Sam Schmidt Foundation. An address at the hospital also has been established for fans wishing to send Schmidt a note of encouragement or comfort. Send mail to:

Sam Schmidt
Attn: Public Relations Department
Barnes-Jewish Hospital
1 Barnes Plaza
St. Louis, MO 63110

Text provided by IMS

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