TORONTO —
An Ontario woman who received an experimental spinal stimulator implant in the U.S. says the device should be tested in Canada.
Sandra Mulder, who was one of the first Canadians to receive the implant, was left partially paralyzed after a motorcycle accident in 2012. She had minimal motor function in her legs, couldn’t sit on the side of a bed for long, and couldn’t reach down to touch her toes without falling over.
But the new implant has changed her life.
“It makes me feel better overall,” said Mulder. “I always have it on at some level. I find that it’s given me a better quality of life.”
Mulder received the implant in 2017, as part of a study in Minnesota. The device uses 16 electrodes to send signals to nerves in her lower spine. She can even control the settings using a smartphone app, picking different “programs” to send varying electrical signals to her spine. The signals provide her with some control over muscles in the paralyzed part of her body.
The device is similar to the epidural stimulator that Humboldt Broncos player Ryan Straschnitzki paid to have implanted in Thailand, a move that he told the Canadian Press emphasizes a gap in Canada, where the devices have not yet been approved for use.
“Our health-care system is kind of lacking in this area for spinal cord injuries and I think it’s huge that Thailand and some other places are getting this started,” he said earlier this month. “I think if Canada can step in and advance this program, I think it’ll help a lot of people out.”
Mulder got her implant, free of charge, as part of a study in Minneapolis led by Calgary surgeon Aaron Phillips of the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta and the University of Calgary. He told CTV National News that early results show the device is safe. Among three Canadian and 11 U.S. patients with implants, the device has shown to improve bladder, bowel and body temperature control. Some patients have even been able to move their legs for the first time.
“I would say that it’s the only therapy in that last kind of 50 years of trials that’s shown such significant promise for people with spinal cord injury,” said Phillips. “I’m excited because I’m seeing people have life-changing experiences … and recovery of function that they didn’t expect to have.”
Phillips and colleagues in Vancouver are “aggressively working through the regulatory steps” to attain funding for a possible study in Canada. He told CTV National News that there is “significant institutional support,” including from the University of Calgary. The study would be the first of its kind in Canada.
Mulder, who has lived with the implant for just over two years now, believes the technology could be life-changing for many Canadians.
“We have to allow it in Canada,” she said, adding that Canadians shouldn’t have to travel to other countries for the device.
Her physiotherapist told CTV National News has witnessed “enormous improvement” in Mulder’s motor function.
“I can’t say it’s miraculous. But she can stand longer, she can reach behind her, which sounds small, but is a huge gain,” said Jackie Levy, who considers the technology promising. “I think it’s the most hopeful thing we have seen in quite a long time.”
HALIFAX – An energy firm based in Ireland says it is planning to produce aviation fuel using about 700,000 tonnes of wood biomass annually.
Simply Blue Group announced today that construction would begin in 2026 with the bio fuel project expected to be operating by 2029 in Goldboro, N.S., about 165 kilometres northeast of Halifax.
The company says it has secured about 305 hectares of land for development, including 108 hectares previously owned by Pieridae — which had planned to build an LNG plant at the site — and 198 hectares owned by the Municipality of the District of Guysborough.
Based in Cork, Ireland, the company says its aviation fuel performs like conventional jet fuel but reduces greenhouse gases by “approximately 90 per cent.”
Simply Blue says that every year the project will source about 700,000 tonnes of biomass from Wagner Forest NS Ltd. to produce 150,000 tonnes of the fuel.
Tory Rushton, the province’s natural resources minister, issued a statement saying the plant could represent a new market for the province’s forestry sector.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
FREDERICTON – New Brunswick RCMP are disputing claims that the recent shooting death of an Indigenous man in mental distress happened during a police wellness check.
Assistant commissioner DeAnna Hill, commander of the New Brunswick RCMP, says that information is inaccurate.
On Monday, the RCMP said two officers responded to a report of an armed man in mental distress at a home in the Elsipogtog First Nation, where one Mountie shot the man after the other failed to subdue him with a stun gun.
Erin Nauss, director of the Serious Incident Response Team, says she understands the initial interaction on Sunday was not what the RCMP would call a wellness check, but she says the police oversight agency will conduct an investigation to “determine all of the facts.”
Meanwhile, a statement from an Indigenous group that works with the RCMP said they weren’t told about the deadly incident until it was too late, and the group described the Mounties’ initial role at the scene as a wellness check.
As well, New Brunswick Liberal Leader Susan Holt has described what happened as a wellness check gone wrong.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
HALIFAX – RCMP are expected to provide an update today on their investigation into the suspicious disappearance of a 55-year-old Nova Scotia woman.
Esther Jones was reported missing on Labour Day, and the RCMP’s major crime unit is now involved in the case.
According to police, Jones was last seen on Aug. 31 in Kingston, N.S., and family members reported her missing Sept. 2.
Two days later, officers found Jones’s vehicle, a silver 2009 Volkswagen Passat, abandoned in nearby Greenwood, N.S.
Jones is described as five-feet-four with a slim build, and she has brown, greying, shoulder-length hair and hazel eyes.
She may have been wearing a black T-shirt with ties on the shoulders, a black and floral below-the-knee skirt, and sunglasses with mirrored lenses when she was last seen.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
