Christopher Reeve, dead at 52

Reeve fell into a coma Saturday after going into cardiac arrest while at his New York home, his publicist, Wesley Combs (search) 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, a common complication for people living with paralysis. In the past week, the wound had become severely infected, resulting in a serious systemic infection.

"On behalf of my entire family, I want to thank Northern Westchester Hospital for the excellent care they provided to my husband," Dana Reeve (search), Christopher's wife, said in a statement. "I also want to thank his personal staff of nurses and aides, as well as the millions of fans from around the world who have supported and loved my husband over the years."

Reeve broke his neck in May 1995 when he was thrown from his horse during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Va.

Enduring months of therapy to allow him to breathe for longer and longer periods without a respirator, Reeve emerged to lobby Congress for better insurance protection against catastrophic injury and to move an Academy Award audience to tears with a call for more films about social issues


I salute those that will continue to promote the type of medical research that would advance treatment for those with catastrophic injuries... He was able to get quite a few years in given his condition. cheers to you... and may your message live on.

Indeed, BiggStankDogg. Yet, what I mind the most is the fact that these people actually seem to believe that money makes research and research a cure. Sure, it's impossible to research without funding, but no one is going to tell me research alone will make a cure. The human race has developed by trial and error, and the same goes for a cure for Parkinson's, and AIDS. We'll find a cure by accident, not because someone invested a lot of money in it.

On the other side, however, you have these almost huge 'funds'. I'm always suprised when I see a commercial of those funds, be it on tv or on a poster. How on earth is it possible that a fund that is trying to get a cure against cancer or some other horrible thing can afford to give money to an advertising company when money, is 'obviously' so hard needed in the R&D section.

I hope he rests in peace, though, a fate I wish to all people on this planet.

Mr U

While I mourn his death, and lament the fact that this man's vigorous and vibrant lifestyle was cut short buy accident and tragedy, I find it ironic how people put the likes of Christopher Reeve on a pedestal for their "bravery" and "courage". Yes, he was a crusader for victims of paralysis, but I ask you this question - would he be that same crusader had he not fallen on his head? I never knew the man personally, but I would say probably not. And it's not just him...

Take people like Michael J. Fox for Parkinson's, or Magic Johnson for HIV/AIDS. I can comfortably say that these people would not give two shits about those that share their plight had they not been in the plight to begin with. It's not bravery, it's desperation. They just happen to have the resources to be vocal about it...

Lol, Maddox... I agree 100%.

I think every person's death (unless it's deserved) is equally tragic. However, I understand and approve of how Reeve's death attracts so much publicity - the man has, apparantely, done a lot for the victims of paralysis, and has therefore been a very important member of the society.
I don't think that the fact that he would have personally reaped the fruits of his chrusade had it succeeded lessens his contribution to humanity at all. A contribution doesn't have to be selfless in order to be appreciated - It just has to be successful (or with good intent, though that's probably asking too much).
He might not have been a martyr, but he still deserves a whole lot of respect.

I agree with you, Master. As well as with BiggStankDogg. It was the same with Rosa Parks and being arrested for not giving up her seat on the bus. There were others before her, she just happened to be a very important person, and the wife of a very important member in NAACP. Seeing as we are all human, we are all cheap and self-centered. Most of us anyway. We think of ourselves, and sympathize with others. But, do we genuinely care for those who are in trouble with such diseases? No, once again, that goes for most of us.

Master is right, money won't help you find a cure. Money is used to pay scientists to sit up in a laboratory and study blood cells and their reaction. To answer their, "what if" questions. It does not find the cure. It only searches. The cure will be discovered by accident.

How on earth to restore working order to severed nerve cells is beyond me. I don't think that can be done. Now, to replace them, I'd say that's something to search for. You may walk again, but you just may be inside of an exoskeleton when you do it. Such as the shortly run, but popular, with me, tv show, Mantis. In this, a doctor developed an exoskeleton, that gave him every feat of superman possible. Minus the flight of course.

He only had this developed, because he needed something like that. And he was being paid. Had he not been paralyzed from the waist down, I'm sure he could have found something else to do. But, his case is different from Reeve's. He is paralyzed from the waist down. Reeve was from the neck down.

So, what if the suit not only assumed the role for the legs, but for the entire body? That is where you dive into the subject of science fiction, instead of fact. Even with assuming the leg role. Movies like Spider-Man fly up at you with this.

In reality, there are machines out there that can be controlled by thought alone. You take electrodes and stab them into the brain. The signal is emitted and it transfers to a computer. The computer then translates the brain signals into electrical signals, and transmits it to the robotic arm. The robotic arm then does what it has been instructed. This all happens within a few seconds.

Something like Dr. Octavius' arms from Spider-Man 2 is not possible. The spine has no mix and match order to it. You can't just stab nano-wires into your spine and gain immediate control. Something like that, just might work, provided someone grew up wearing those. The body would learn what they did. But, just plug and play is impossible.

There is a computer program, called CyberLink however, that performs more or less the same function of the electrodes. It reads the brain waves, and you can control your computer. An unclear mind, or undirected thought will produce results you don't seek, but results nonetheless.

I think that the body can't be fixed, to it's normal state. But perhaps, could be substituted. A severed armor could be replaced by a robotic arm. Or such, a paralyzed body could be contained in an exoskeleton, controlled by thought alone.

But, then we wouldn't be much humans anymore, we'd become cyborgs.

Then you could get into bouts with prolonged life, and people playing God and what not. Actions and reactions it would come down to. If you could integrate man and machine, then you'd truly have a cyborg. You could eliminate the need for biological components altogether. Or perhaps, this is still as I said, fiction and not fact. But could indeed one day become, a reality.

Mr U's Apprentice - Steppenwolfe

I agree that people like Christopher Reeves and Michael J Fox may not have given a rats ass about the relative conditions they found themselves suffering with if they hadn't had them, I still think that having found themselves in these situations they have made the best of them and done their best to help others who are suffering. These high profile cases help to bring in vital funding for research.

I don't agree with you either HU on your point about research and the discovery of a cure coming by accident. An element of luck will be necessary to find cures for some of the diseases mentioned, I agree BUT if people aren't looking for them then how do they expect to find them?

i went to school the day after he died and started telling the little kids superman died.
it was kinda funny...but i really do miss superman...

But Superman did die. Lois and Jimmy and most of Metropolis saw it. Duh!

As for Christopher Reeve, I'm sorry to see him go, but with everyone must go sometime. He put up a good fight, and I hope others do too.