Donation Creates Research Chair Position
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Individuals who reside in Ottawa and suffer from spinal injuries could benefit from a research chair recently created at an area hospital, which will focus on finding a cure for the injury. The chair, which will reside at the Ottawa Hospital’s Civil Campus, was made possible by a donation from the family of a woman who suffered a spinal injury as a young woman. The family donated $500,000 to create the Suruchi Bhargava Chair in Spinal Cord and Brain Regeneration Research.
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The doctor named as chair has been with the hospital for almost a decade. She is a clinician scientist and award-winning neurosurgeon. The approaches she is interested in include tissue engineering, nanotechnology and stem cell therapy. According to the doctor, spinal injury research is made possible by donations from private donors such as the one that created her chair position.
The family that made the research chair possible made the donation in memory of their daughter. The woman was just 23-years-old when she was paralyzed in a car accident shortly after she was married. As a result of that crash, she was left unable to move anything below her neck. She lived with the injury for 17 years, until her death at the age of 40. She never regained the abilities she had before the car accident.
Spinal cord injuries can dramatically change the lives of not only the person who suffers them, but of those who care for the individuals as well. In addition to the physical changes someone faces there are also emotional challenges as well. These can take a toll on those involved not only physically and emotionally but financially as well. For this reason, when an injury is the result of negligence on the part of another, a personal injury lawsuit in which compensation for the injury could be the outcome, might make sense.
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