Christopher Reeve Dies :(

[GuyJean]

'Superman' Star Christopher Reeve Dead at 52
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/11/obit.reeve.ap/index.html

Christopher Reeve, the star of the "Superman" movies whose near-fatal riding accident nine years ago turned him into a worldwide advocate for spinal cord research, died Sunday of heart failure, his publicist said. He was 52.

Reeve fell into a coma Saturday after going into cardiac arrest while at his New York home, his publicist, Wesley Combs, told The Associated Press by phone from Washington, D.C., on Sunday night.

Reeve was being treated at Northern Westchester Hospital for a pressure wound that he developed, a common complication for people living with paralysis. In the past week, the wound had become severely infected, resulting in a serious systemic infection.

Nooooooooo!
I guess he's now running, jumping, and flying again, but he'll be missed here.. We need his optimism now more than ever..
What a truly super man..

GJ

[tetsujin gaijin]

A sad farwell to the original tetsujin. He will be missed.

[twilightzone]

that really sucks. I really thought he would oneday walk again.

perhaps in heaven.

RIP

[Buraku]

[dingosatemybaby]

that really sucks. I really thought he would oneday walk again.

perhaps in heaven.

RIP

I feel genuinely sad about Chris. He helped attract so much attention to the cause of paralysis, and I truly hoped that he and other victims would be able to walk again by about the year 2010, based on what I've read about advances in stem-cell research and neuronal regeneration. And when that day came, I would feel that medicine had truly come of age, that it could truly help people, not just prolong their agony, as it often does today. I wonder if Chris simply couldn't take it any more. Sad news indeed.

[GuyJean]

I think his best film may have been Superman-2 but he also starred in other good movies like Village of the Damned , Speechless and Above Suspicion

I really liked Deathtrap..

GJ

[Taro Toporific]

Toast to Chris R. Thanks for all the bad movies and misdirected research.

Reeves had been making grand claims since 1995 that research would have him walking "within five years."

Reeves died of pressure sore. Once again proving axom in rehabilitaion medicine that the paralysis on the inside is the real problem, not the inconvenience of not being able to walk.

Reeves should have addressed his all his charity funding for a "I-gonna-walk-again-cure" towards improved care and universal health insurance for ALL Americans. Instead, he was sucking up $640,000 per year in his own care while millions of Americans like me get zip, zero, nada.

Fuck the "Cure" --- just give us universal care.

[GuyJean]

Toast to Chris R. Thanks for all the bad movies and misdirected research.

Reeves had been making grand claims since 1995 that research would have him walking "within five years."

Maybe he was a little off]Paralyzed Woman Walks Again After Stem Cell Therapy[/b]
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1512&e=9&u=/afp/health_stemcell_paralysis_skorea

A South Korean woman paralyzed for 20 years is walking again after scientists say they repaired her damaged spine using stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood.

Hwang Mi-Soon, 37, had been bedridden since damaging her back in an accident two decades ago.

Last week her eyes glistened with tears as she walked again with the help of a walking frame at a press conference where South Korea (news - web sites) researchers went public for the first time with the results of their stem-cell therapy.

So, according to Laura's Bush, this woman is giving people 'false hope'.. "Sit down, bitch!"

GJ

[Taro Toporific]

[
Hwang Mi-Soon, 37, had been bedridden since damaging her back in an accident two decades ago.
... So, according to Laura's Bush, this woman is giving people 'false hope'.. "Sit down, bitch!"

Damn, you got me on the side on Lara Bush, GuyJean.

This is Korean "research" is like Japanese research. I will not be buying the next ticket to Korea just yet.

It's a shame for me, but I have to suspect this is yet another misdirected grab at PR. "Cures" like this happen all the time.

Here's the deal. More than 95% of the people who break their spine do not end up in wheelchairs. Most of the remaining 5% are like me and get some remission of paralysis. The stem-cell therapy above helps borderline cases but in the near future it's not gonna fix people Chris Reeves with fully TRANSECTED spinal cord.

The dead giveaway that something is VERY FISHY is the line "Hwang Mi-Soon, 37, had been bedridden since damaging her back". Almost nobody is "bedridden" by breaking their back anymore. Current treatment has people up in wheelchairs with back bracing in less than week after injury. Something is very very odd about Hwang Mi-Soon' case.

[GuyJean]

This is Korean "research" is like Japanese research. I will not be buying the next ticket to Korea just yet.

The dead giveaway that something is VERY FISHY is the line "Hwang Mi-Soon, 37, had been bedridden since damaging her back". Almost nobody is "bedridden" by breaking their back anymore. Current treatment has people up in wheelchairs with back bracing in less than week after injury. Something is very very odd about Hwang Mi-Soon' case.

Yeah, I'm no doctor but I would assume all spinal injuries are very different, with different degrees of severity.

My buddy in college broke his neck in a bad car accident. But after hanging from his neck in a doorway for two years (with a brace), he's perfectly fine. I think they combined fusing and moving some bone from his hip.. Not sure.

But anyway, as soon as I heard the story was from Korea, I smelled fishyness. Albeit with a touch of kimchee.. Koreans seem so melodramatic about everything.

GJ

[dingosatemybaby]

"Bedridden." Odd choice of words, that. Didn't think it had been used with regards to paralysis sufferers since, I dunno, the late 18th century.

While this Korean claim may not be any more credible than the Raelian human cloning buffoonery, it may well represent more than the "false hope" Charles Krauthammer and his apparent spokeswoman Laura Bush talk about (Krauthammer heaped derision on that commercial a few years back showing a recovered Christopher Reeve standing up and walking). Nonetheless, I think there's real reason to hope that within the next ten years some pretty amazing new treatments for spinal and neck injuries will be developed. If doctors at the NIH - not normally wont to offer pie-in-the-sky promises - can confidently predict that suffering and death from cancer will be eliminated by 2015, can an effective treatment for paralysis be far behind?

[Taro Toporific]

While this Korean claim may not be any more credible than the Raelian human cloning buffoonery, it may well represent more than the "false hope" Charles Krauthammer and his apparent spokeswoman Laura Bush talk about (Krauthammer heaped derision on that commercial a few years back showing a recovered Christopher Reeve standing up and walking).

That "commercial a few years back showing a recovered Christopher Reeve standing up and walking" was a cruel joke. Gimps that got those electrode impants and gate-computers now have rotting and festering muscles since removing the thread-like implant wiring turned out impossible. Perhaps the mysterious death of Christopher Reeve from bedsores could have been those festering implants.

That said, this Korean stunt should make the stem-cell proponents push harder and garner more support.

Japan normally lags behind 5 year on new proceedure but since the KOREANS beat them <gasp> maybe the proceedure will be introduced here before the Anglo Axis.* What does the Dingo's doctor sources think about the introduction of a new techinque or a tech race of Korean vs Japan?

*((Yikes, I just invented a new word for the Real World: Canada, Au, UK, NZ, USA.))

[GuyJean]

Dana Reeve, Widow of Christopher Reeve, Dies of Lung Cancer
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/03/07/obit.reeve.ap/index.html

Dana Reeve, who won worldwide admiration for her devotion to her "Superman" husband, Christopher Reeve, through his decade of near-total paralysis, has died of lung cancer at the age of 44...

Holy shit, man.. When it rains, it pours..

GJ

[maninjapan]

F**k man why is it the good always die from horrible diseases and never the wa**ers

[Charles]

F**k man why is it the good always die from horrible diseases and never the wa**ers

Huh? You think marrying a megawealthy actor makes someone a good person?

[GuyJean]

Huh? You think marrying a megawealthy actor makes someone a good person?

Yeah, what an evil bitch!

A year ago, she won a Mother of the Year award from the American Cancer Society. A society vice president, Dr. Michael Thun, said Reeve "has shown strength and courage in the face of tremendous adversity." Doctors say 1 in 5 women diagnosed with the disease never lit a cigarette. - http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/03/07/obit.reeve.ap/index.html

She married actor Christopher Reeve in April 1992, and they had one child, William, who was born on June 7, 1992.

In 1995, she was thrust into the role as a very public supporter and caretaker for her husband, Christopher, when he was paralyzed from the neck down in a horse-riding accident. After his death on October 10, 2004, she assumed the role of chairperson of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, which funds research on paralysis and works to improve the lives of the disabled. To date, it has awarded more than $55 million (USD) in research grants and more than $8 million in quality-of-life grants. She also had a career as a motivational speaker and activist for the rights of the disabled and proponent of stem cell research. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Reeve

You know what they say]after[/i] marrying an actor do people become nice..

GJ

[Greji]

Huh? You think marrying a megawealthy actor makes someone a good person?

Smart comes to mind! GJ could never be a sucessful gold digger!

[Charles]

You know what they say]after[/i] marrying an actor do people become nice..

Before a nobody like Dana Morosini marries a megawealthy actor, they call her a gold-digger. Afterwards, they call her a whore. But only behind her back.

Note that the article you quoted was a calculated lie. Reeve didn't break his neck in a riding accident, he broke his neck while playing polo on one of his million-dollar polo ponies.

I have absolutely zero sympathy for someone like Christopher Reeve who broke his neck playing polo. I have zero sympathy for someone like Dana Reeve who wasted her life seeking the spotlight while shilling for a phony charity with low ratings even compared to all the other phony charities.

[GuyJean]

I have absolutely zero sympathy for someone like Christopher Reeve who broke his neck playing polo. I have zero sympathy for someone like Dana Reeve who wasted her life seeking the spotlight while shilling for a phony charity with low ratings even compared to all the other phony charities.

I would venture to guess, not many people want your sympathy..

GJ

[Charles]

I would venture to guess, not many people want your sympathy..

You obviously don't understand "Pity Marketing." They will never stop until they get everyone's sympathy, or they die trying.

[GuyJean]

You obviously don't understand "Pity Marketing."

You obviously don't understand when someone's not interested in your opinion..

GJ

[Charles]

You obviously don't understand when someone's not interested in your opinion..

You obviously don't understand the difference between disinterest, and actively reading and responding to something repeatedly.

Pity Marketing is something important, whether you feign disinterest or not. Pity Marketing is a massive industry, it distorts the distribution of funding, diverting it from where it is most needed to victims whose pitiable conditions are most marketable. Just to give an example, the MDA is one of the top 5 funded medical charities in the US, but the combined diseases the MDA covers aren't even in the top 30 in terms of people affected. But the money goes to these prominent charities because they are run by attention whores like Jerry Lewis or Dana Reeves, and are supported by middlemen who make a living siphoning funds off the top.
Believe me, I know this all too well, having watched my mother slowly die of ALS, getting offers of support from the MDA (but no actual support) and meanwhile, since she was on the MDA mailing list, suddenly she's getting tons of Pity Marketing mass mailings from every sham charity on earth, from the National Associations of Chiefs of Police to phony NYC 9/11 Firemen's funds (didn't every dead firemen's family already get millions?) and all because the MDA sold her name to mailing list operators. So I had to watch my poor mother, in a pitiable condition herself, vexed by hundreds of stupid solitications for phony charities, begging for her money at a time when her own medical treatment was bankrupting her, and she was becoming a charity case.

If a person shills for a phony charity, diverting money from where it does the most good, that makes them a BAD PERSON. Sure they mean well, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. If you want to put your money to use where it will do good, go to a website like charitynavigator.org and look for charities that are rated 4 stars. Note that the MDA and the Christopher Reeves Foundation are only rated 2 stars, and it is exceptionally difficult to get only 1 star, the charity operators pretty much have to already be arrested and indicted to get 1 star.

[Greji]

Before a nobody like Dana Morosini marries a megawealthy actor, they call her a gold-digger. Afterwards, they call her a whore. But only behind her back.

Note that the article you quoted was a calculated lie. Reeve didn't break his neck in a riding accident, he broke his neck while playing polo on one of his million-dollar polo ponies.

I have absolutely zero sympathy for someone like Christopher Reeve who broke his neck playing polo. I have zero sympathy for someone like Dana Reeve who wasted her life seeking the spotlight while shilling for a phony charity with low ratings even compared to all the other phony charities.

I'll take a bit of a shot at this Charles.
As for the nobody shot, here is a brief on Dana Nobody, when she received an honorary Doctorate from her alma mater: "....At Middlebury, Dana Morosini Reeve majored in English and took a number of theatre courses before graduating cum laude. Her theatre credits include the starring role in the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival's recent rendition of "The Crucible," as well as a leading role in the Broadway comedy "More to Love." On television, she has guest starred on "Law and Order" and "All My Children," and played recurring roles on the CBS drama "Feds" and the HBO series "Oz." She also appeared in the HBO films "Above Suspicion" and "Someone Had to Be Benny." ....". Probably a nobody to a traveled man such as you Chas!

Ah, I almost forgot, the accident!

"....May 27, 1995: At age 42, Christopher Reeve shatters two top vertebrae in an accident at an [SIZE="5"]equestrian event[/SIZE]. He regained consciousness four days later at the University of Virginia Medical Center, Charlottesville, VA...."

A polo pony couldn't get over a jump on an escalator. I think there is a video of the fall around somewhere, which if one were interested enough to search (which I'm not), might turn up.

[Charles]

an [SIZE="5"]equestrian event[/SIZE].

Ah, so he was not actually riding his million dollar horse in a polo match against other millionaire playboys, but instead was riding his million dollar horse in an equestrian jumping competition against other millionaire playboys. My mistake.

As to Dana, she was another unemployed actress doing occasional work in soap operas, then she started sucking Superman's dick and suddenly doors opened for her.

[Greji]

then she started sucking Superman's dick and suddenly doors opened for her.

Hmmm, I suppose I should have opened a door for her!

[American Oyaji]

Is there an ignore function on this board?