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Paralyzed patient moves legs again after 23 years
20 patients with paraplegia are seeing improvements after receiving a spinal cord implant.
MINNEAPOLIS — More than 300,000 Americans live with spinal cord injuries, according to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center, and many dream of walking again.
Crystal LaBo is one of them.
“I’ve always had the mindset that I would walk again someday,” LaBo said.
LaBo has paraplegia and has been in a wheelchair for 23 years.
She was involved in a car accident on Oct. 8, 1999 and hasn’t been able to walk since.
“When I was at the scene of the car accident we knew. I couldn’t feel anything from my chest down,” LaBo said.
Since her accident, LaBo has applied for nearly a dozen medical studies to see if she could get back some of the mobility in her legs.
“I was always turned down,” LaBo explains.
“The problem with mine is that my date for my injury is out so far. Most studies don’t include people that have the injury date out so far.”
In 2021 LaBo applied for a study at Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis.
However, this time, doctors accepted her application.
“She is really our furthest out from injury,” Dr. David Darrow says.
Dr. Darrow is the principal investigator for Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute’s E-STAND clinical trial.
The trial has included 20 patients like LaBo who suffer from paralysis and are willing to have an epidural spinal cord stimulation implant surgically implanted near their spine.
For nearly 50 years, spinal cord stimulation has been used to help patients with chronic pain.
Dr. Darrow said doctors recently discovered that the technology could also be used to help paraplegic patients recover some movement.
“Over time what we have found is sure enough in 20 out of 20 patients we see significant effects across the board,” Dr. Darrow explains.
Doctors say patients have seen improvements in movement and mobility in their legs, improved blood circulation, and increased control over their bowels and bladders.
LaBo says she is experiencing improvements in all of those areas, and she is also experiencing an improvement in her body’s ability to regulate temperature.
“I used to be cold all the time and now I’m not. I’m much more comfortable now,” LaBo says.
LaBo and her husband Dustin live in Bryan, Ohio.
Together they have four kids, and they own a restaurant that specializes in grilled cheese.
“We have 16 to 18 different kinds of grilled cheese available,” Dustin LaBo said.
Crystal works nearly every job at the restaurant, including waiting tables, which has become a bit of a challenge since her legs started moving again
“So, I have a tray on my lap with food and drinks and my legs will kick up. The other day the tray kicked up and hit me in the fact,” LaBo laughs.
A small price to pay for everything she has gained these past two months.
“Every day I see a little more movement, a little more control. The first time she did it, I’ll never forget that look on her face. She was just like, it was the greatest day of her life, and she was like, ‘I did it. I did it,”’ Dustin LaBo said.
Dr. Darrow and his team are now building a case to get FDA approval.
They want to enroll at least 20 more patients to show how well their procedure works.
“Then my job is convincing insurance companies to pay for it, which is a big job, but we think results are robust enough and the cost is reasonable,” Dr. Darrow said.
Over time Dr. Darrow is hoping to bring this procedure to more patients like Crystal, who dreams of taking her first step in 23 years, and maybe even walking again.
“I’ll get there one day. It might take a while, but I’ll get there.”
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With a 17-member jury finally seated after an arduous selection process, the prosecution and defense on Thursday took the first step in building their cases.
MANKATO, Minn. — With an arduous jury selection process finally in the rearview mirror, both prosecutors and the defense began laying out their cases Thursday in the murder trial of Adam Fravel.
Fravel is charged with four felony counts – first-degree murder, first-degree premeditated murder, second-degree intentional murder, and second-degree unintentional murder while committing a felony offense – in the death of 26-year-old Maddi Kingsbury, his live-in partner and mother of Favel’s two children.
Kingsbury was last seen dropping her young son and daughter off at daycare in Winona the morning of March 31, 2023. She was reported missing by family and friends later that day. Maddi’s decomposing remains were found south of Winona 68 days later. The medical examiner eventually concluded she died of homicidal violence, likely asphyxiation.
Opening statements began shortly after 9 a.m. in Blue Earth County District Court, chosen as the venue after Judge Nancy Buytendorp ruled Fravel’s trial should be moved from Winona County due to extensive pre-trial publicity.
The state was the first to address the jury panel, with prosecutor Phil Prokopowicz immediately painting a picture of Maddi as a successful career woman and mother who had become increasingly frustrated with Fravel and his inability to contribute as their seven-year relationship crumbled.
Prokopowicz told jurors that Kingsbury had met a man, Spencer Sullivan, on a dating app and as their relationship grew Maddi decided to end her partnership with Fravel. Kingsbury contacted her landlord and said she was terminating the least, and that she had found a townhouse where she and the children would live.
The state also laid out a list of electronic and video evidence it says proves Fravel killed Maddi and engaged in an elaborate coverup, also indicating there will be testimony on alleged abuse in the relationship.
Fravel’s defense team began its opening statement with a geography lesson of sorts, with attorney Zach Bauer naming Winona and the small communities of Rushford, Choice, Mable, and the highways and county roads that run through them. Bauer asked jurors to think about the locations as they listen to testimony and absorb the evidence presented in Fravel’s trial.
The defense then began painting its own picture of the relationship between Fravel and Kingsbury, saying like many couples they had disagreements and there were times Maddi would move out the home and other times when Fravel would go home to stay with his parents.
Unlike prosecutors – who said Kingsbury’s relationship with Spencer Sullivan was getting deeper – the defense told jurors about texts from Maddi to her sister saying she was going to marry Adam Fravel. Ultimately, Bauer told the court, Kingsbury and Fravel agreed to separate but were doing so in a cooperative and planned manner.
Bauer told jurors that Fravel cooperated with police after Kingsbury disappeared, saying his defense team would show that investigators ignored evidence and facts that suggested his innocence. He indicated they will challenge the prosecution’s version of how and where the body was found, and who may have had access to the remote site not far from Mabel.
The defense also said they will call a neighbor who will testify they never heard any fighting or signs of discord in the relationship between Kingsbury and Fravel.
The 16-year-old girl was last seen in September in north Minneapolis.
MINNEAPOLIS — The Anoka County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help to find a missing teenage girl.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) shared Thursday on X that 16-year-old Tivona Cardenas was last seen in late September in north Minneapolis.
Cardenas is 5 feet 2 inches and 108 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes, according to the Minnesota BCA.
If you have any information on the teen’s whereabouts, call 911.
St. Paul’s Harriet Island will host the event Sunday to raise money for colon cancer awareness and screenings.
ST PAUL, Minn. — St. Paul’s Harriet Island will host runners, walkers and supporters on Sunday for the 20th annual Get Your Rear in Gear event.
The fundraiser boosts money and awareness for colon cancer and the importance of screening for it. Attendees can enjoy music, snacks, a giant inflatable colon, timed 10K and 5K races, untimed 5K and one-mile memory walk and a Kids’ Fun Run.
Chris Evans, the president of the Colon Cancer Coalition, and William Pierce, a caregiver who lost his mom to colorectal cancer, visited KARE 11 News at Noon to share more about the event and the importance of screening.
According to the American Cancer Society, about 2,550 Minnesota residents will be diagnosed and 830 could lose their life to colon cancer in 2024.
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