Christopher Reeve's son Matthew opens up on how their family's foundation has helped many paralysed patients walk
Five years after being paralyzed from the waist down in a snowmobile accident, 29-year-old Jered Chinnock took his first steps just a few weeks ago. The young American, who was told he would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, stunned onlookers after walking more than 100 meters with the aid of a wheeled walking frame. The pioneering treatment which bore fruits for Jered is called epidural stimulation, which involves electrodes surgically attached to the lower part of the spinal cord in order to "reconnect" nerve cells.
That said, Matthew Reeve, the eldest son of late actor Christopher Reeve, took particular interest in the news after his own father was left paralyzed from the neck down in a horse-riding accident in 1995 and later died from sepsis at the age of 42 following an allergic reaction to an antibiotic, Daily Mail reports.