EASTHAMPTON, MA (WGGB/WSHM) — Nearly a decade after a training ride crash left him with a spinal cord injury, an Easthampton man is regaining function through an investigational at-home therapy.
Dan Stasz, a lifelong Easthampton resident and former Ironman triathlete, suffered a C4 to C6 spinal cord injury in 2017 when his bike hit a pothole during a training ride. “I found a pothole that front of the bike got buried in and ended up landing on my forehead and spiraling over my neck,” he explained.
Stasz added he knew something was wrong immediately. “At that point, lying on the ground, I knew I couldn’t move,” he noted. “I found myself a completely independent athlete to complete dependent on everybody.”
Clinical trial tests electrical stimulation approach
Stasz signed up for a clinical trial at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Cambridge testing a one-of-a-kind approach. The therapy uses gentle electrical stimulation on the outside of the body designed to help wake up and retrain nervous system pathways while patients practice everyday movements. “It feels like a gentle vibration to the back of the neck and down into the shoulder area and then basically you have a set of exercises and routines you do and it can be everything from trying to pick up a pen, move your arms, pick up a ball,” he said.
Stasz noted he began seeing results over time. “As time progressed over the weeks, you started to see slow movements and it started to snowball. Once the body seems to figure it out a little bit, it continues to figure it out,” he said.
Dr. Randy Trumbower, director of the INSPIRE Laboratory at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, said the goal of this kind of therapy is function and the little things most people don’t think about. “It’s the small things that mean the most in many ways, whether it’s turning the page of a book or opening a door things that you and I don’t even think about become very much on the front end of an individual with a spinal cord injury as being a major obstacle for them to feel independent, not feel like you’re a burden to your loved ones,” he explained.
At-home phase addresses transportation barriers
What makes this study different is what happens after the clinic. Participants transition to an at-home phase, so therapy fits real life, including the reality that transportation and mobility can be major barriers for people living with spinal cord injuries.
“During that time, where they are receiving the stimulation, they are practicing functional meaningful skills, but in their home and in an environment, that really focuses on what their needs are,” Trumbower said. “In cases where they need to work on opening a door, it’s the door they need to open, not the door we give them in the clinic to practice on.”
For Stasz, the progress included something he said he didn’t have before: movement in his hands. “My hands, before that, didn’t open at all, so there were clenched fist, then I realized I had movement in the fingers a little bit. We could look at a thumb and it would move and twitch when I thought of it,” he explained. “It was like ‘Oh my God, it’s there, it’s not gone, and from that point, it really developed into a hope like if I can get this started, where’s the limit?”
Not a cure, but life-changing functionality
Stasz said the therapy is not a cure, but if it helps people do more on their own, that’s lifechanging. “This doesn’t cure you. This is not a cure. It enhances functionality which, for most of us, is all we care about anyway is just being functionally able-bodied as close as we can,” he added.
Even years after his injury, Stasz said he’s still seeing change. He wants others to know progress can be slow, but it’s still progress. “I have been injured since 2017. I’m what they would call a chronic, yet we are still seeing changes and that’s a very positive thing for a lot of folks who do get hurt,” he added.
Stasz lives by a simple idea: “millimeters matter,” because small gains can mean bigger independence. “This has been life changing for me and I hope a lot of other people get to use it,” he said.
Published by Western Mass News (WGGB/WSHM), by