Joey had been training for years to become a world-class speed skater and was about to reach his ultimate goal of representing the United States at the 2002 Olympics. Joey was dedicated to his sport, training year-round, paying close attention to his nutrition and the amount of sleep he received. Before Joey did anything, he thought about how it would affect his skating. Speed skating was his life.

But, driving back from a morning practice, Joey’s Chevy Beretta was hit by a semi-truck. Joey was forced off the road, rolled his car and suffered a broken neck and spinal cord injury. As a result of the severe damage to his spinal cord, Joey like 700,000 other Americans¹ was now a quadriplegic.

Compounding his tragedy, Joey soon discovered that the muscles he trained so intensively had turned against him. About a month after his injury, Joey began experiencing severe muscle spasticity, a condition that causes some muscles to erratically contract. These painful contractions cause stiffness and tightness of the muscles and can interfere with movement. Spasticity affects approximately 500,000 people in the United States and more than 12 million people worldwide.²

Because of his body’s constant and erratic spasm attacks, it took as many as five nurses to transfer Joey's mere 150-pound body between beds. During the day he had to be strapped into his wheelchair like a hostage. Joey’s high muscle mass caused him to have, according to Joey, “the worst spasms the nurses at the hospital had ever seen.”

At first, the doctors tried to treat his spasticity with traditional oral medications, including Baclofen, a muscle relaxant. However, while it helped with his spasticity, the medication made Joey very lethargic, a common side effect.

Joey’s physicians then recommended he have an infusion pump implanted in his abdomen. The infusion pump administers a small dose of Baclofen continuously into the space surrounding the spinal cord. The drug needs to be replenished every month to six months, depending on dosing, by injecting the medication through the skin into the pump’s reservoir.

Research has found that after having a Baclofen infusion pump implanted, more than 90 percent of patients saw marked improvements in their ability to complete daily activities such as dressing, being transferred from beds to wheelchairs and ability to tolerate sitting.³ Another study found that patients like Joey, who had the pump implanted to treat spasticity as a result of spinal cord injury, maintained their muscle tone within the normal range.⁴

In addition to functional improvement, most users of Baclofen pumps also experience fewer side effects than are typically associated with oral medications. A U.S. study documented that costs of pump implantation are recouped within an average of 2.5 years, given the reduction in hospital stays due to other medical issues that the pump prevents.^5,6

When Joey woke up from his implant surgery, he immediately felt the difference. Within a few days, he felt stable enough to sit in his wheelchair without having to be strapped in. The most incredible discovery, however, was that he found some muscles actually worked and had just been hidden by the spasticity. Without the fear of harming himself or others, he was able to spend longer periods of time away from nurses and physical therapists and more time with his friends and family. “I was no longer a prisoner of my spasms,” Joey exclaimed.

In the years following his accident, thanks to rehabilitation therapy and pump implantation, Joey was able to move on with his life. Despite spending his entire senior year of high school in rehabilitation centers, he still managed to graduate with the rest of his class and go on to graduate with honors from Augsburg College. Joey is now driving his own car, working as an intern, looking for full time employment and in search of new goals. “Thanks to my Baclofen pump I can do that. There are times now that I don’t even think about being handicapped,” said Joey.