The Marisa Tufaro Foundation has afforded a medically fragile child from Middlesex County, whose dream is to be able to walk, the opportunity to receive multiple therapy sessions at Project Walk New Jersey.
Project Walk Paralysis Recovery Centers, with locations in six states nationwide, is an internationally recognized leader in activity-based paralysis recovery for people with spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease), Parkinson’s, stroke and other disorders affecting mobility, according to Leslie Clark, executive director of Project Walk New Jersey, located in Mount Laurel.
The cost for families caring for a child with or recovering from paralysis is immense. In addition to lost wages, families incur expenses for home renovations, equipment, transportation and other needs, making it financially difficult to afford the therapy Project Walk provides, which health insurance does not cover. Project Walk’s recovery programs provide clients with one-on-one training for two to three hours per session two to three days a week.
Project Walk New Jersey, which has been serving the southern New Jersey and metropolitan Philadelphia area since March 2015, is the second facility of its kind on the East Coast. Clark said Project Walk New Jersey has helped individuals, not only from the Garden State and Pennsylvania, but from as far away as Norway, Germany, Buffalo, New York City, Virginia, Maryland and elsewhere.“Traditionally, paralysis rehabilitation, and more specifically, spinal cord injury rehabilitation, has focused on compensation,” Clark said. “The thought was that the nervous system could not reorganize and improve function below the level of injury. Recent research in such areas as stroke and Project Walk’s documented success with paralysis over the last two decades, has proven this to be false. We cannot guarantee who will regain function, however, we understand and recognize symptoms that present the potential to improve function below the level of injury for those with spinal cord injury and improve overall functional recovery for those with other ailments.
“We tap into this potential through our world-renowned activity-based program,” Clark continued. “Our program focuses on using specific exercises that are related to the same movement patterns that occur during human development. Through these movements, we are attempting to reestablish patterned neural activity within the central nervous system. These movement patterns are replicated by our clients with the help of our highly-trained specialists, who have been taught to respond to unique cues that each client’s nervous system gives them and, by providing the proper stimulus, help it (the nervous system) to reorganize.”
Clark said Project Walk understands every client has special needs and that her center offers several programs to best meet those needs, optimizing each client’s chances for recovery.
Project Walk’s biggest success story is, perhaps, that of Victoria Arlen, a motivational speaker, actress, model, swimmer and ESPN on-air talent who learned to walk after spending more than a decade being paralyzed from the waist down. Arlen received therapy at Project Walk’s California location. Last fall, Arlen, whose inspirational life story is beyond extraordinary, was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars.
According to a CNN report: Arlen struggled with the idea that she would never walk again …until … she discovered a paralysis recovery center called Project Walk. “It was the first place that people were like, ‘We don’t know what you’re capable of. But we’re going to try.’ I just went at it four to five hours a day with a trainer and just kept pushing.” After thousands of hours of intense therapy, she finally got a flicker, a small movement in her right leg, and took her first step. By April 2016, she was walking again despite having no feeling in her legs. “I had spent almost a decade in a wheelchair, and now I was on my feet.”
At the age of 11, Arlen developed rare medical conditions known as Transverse Myelitis and Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis, which rendered her unable to speak, eat, walk and move.
“She slipped into a vegetative state in which doctors had written her off as a lost cause,” reads a biographical sketch about Arlen on her website. “Victoria spent nearly four years ‘locked’ inside her own body, completely aware of what was going on, just unable to move or communicate. Doctors believed there was little hope of survival and recovery was unlikely.”
Four years later, in 2010, Arlen commenced her amazing journey to recovery, defying insurmountable odds. She went on to become a decorated swimmer, winning one gold medal and three silver medals in London at the 2012 Paralympic Games.
Arlen is globally renown, not only for her remarkable life story, which gives hope to countless others, but for the inspirational message she imparts: “Face it, embrace it, defy it, conquer it.”