Question
My son age 42 had an absess in his thoat, after three or four days of home treatment we finally persuaded him to go the a doctor.  From there he was sent to the emergency room of the local hospital.  A neuro-surgent and an ENT specialist did surgery to drain the absess and when he came out of the surgery he could no longer move his arms or legs. He has no feellings below the middle of his chest. I would like to know what caused this and where I can go to get more information about his future care as my wife and I will be his care givers after he gets out of the hospital.

Answer
Hi Cecil,
Thanks so much for your questions.

I'm sorry to hear about your son. There are numerous possiblities of what may have caused your son's paralysis but it would be difficult for me to single out any one cause.

I am including 4 sites with extensive info on Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI).

1. This site, by the University of Alabama-Birmingham, has a lot of information. Check out the Index page:
http://www.spinalcord.uab.edu/

2. A great site with many links to other SCI sites:
http://www.sci-info-pages.com/

3. This site is a glossary of terms used with SCIs:
http://calder.med.miami.edu/pointis/glossary.html

4. This site contains names of people SCIs. Just click on the name to email them. Some of names with a "homepage" contains links to other SCI info:
http://www.2tim.net

I hope this helps and if you have any more questions, PLEASE feel free to ask me anytime.

Thanks again,
John McKinzie