6 replies to this topic

[demfabbones]

This is very random and doesn't really matter now, since it's after the fact, but I'm just wondering. My dad had an SCI a few months ago in a "freak accident." Two other members of his family have had spinal cord injuries - one was in a car accident many, many years ago and has been a wheelchair user since; the other managed only to break her neck in a fall but thankfully she has no spinal cord damage.

Although my memories from my dad's accident are fuzzy, I seem to remember a surgeon telling us he had stenosis (narrowing) of the spinal column, and when my mom asked if it could have been narrow before the accident, he said, "It's possible, there's no way to know, etc." This narrowing is partially what caused his injury, as I understand it, as his neck broke and then jammed into his spinal cord.

I'm just curious to know if some people are predisposed to such injuries and/or if they can be genetic.

[LeahC]

An injury can not be genetic but some of the reasons for it could be, like you said - stenosis. Many people may live with it fine but one could fall and due to the narrowing it would be easier to break?

[LuckyinKentucky]

Sounds like a good question for Robbie Knievel... I'm sure that health conditions exist that can increase the damages incurred by an accident or that could increase chances or something breaking. I would say though it could be also possible to pass on bad habits or lifestyles that could increase the likelihood of accident.

[Snakeye]

That's a good question...My Gr Grandfather fell from a moving tractor in 1929 and suffered a spinal cord injury...Oddly, he was the same age as me when I fell and suffered a sci...strange coincidense, but not genetic I think....Injuries encouraged by spinal stenosis, which might be genetic?...possibly...He never walked again but put some small wooden wheels on the bottom of a ordinary rocking chair and scooted and slid all over his house and farmyard....

Edited by Snakeye, 07 March 2011 - 12:30 AM.

[Simba]

I very much doubt it...

Although some people could be more prone or suceptible to an injury.

People have tried to insinuate my husband's injury is genetic

Three car accidents, facial reconstruction, fractured skull (no CSF buffer anymore), missing eye, rotor cuff damage, missing artery in leg, smashed in twisted rib cage & twisted pelvis PLLEEEAAASE hardly the kind of thing that is hereditary.

[qbounce]

Neck injuries aren't hereditary, but Stupidity is. jk

[MTB John]

I can think of one factor that could be genetic.
Some people's spinal column is quite thin and the cord is a tight fit. This increases the risk of SCI as it is when the cord swells and gets pinched between the vertebrae that the damage is caused. Bone structure is hereditary I assume..
So if your family all have a thin spinal column then they could receive a SCI from an accident that someone else may be able to walk away from.

On the other hand my column is quite wide and it did not stop me becoming a Tetra. That said I have a lot more function then most C-6's because there was room for the cord to swell without being too badly damaged..