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Blog > Thoughts > Sean's Thoughts > Self-Engineering Paralysis Is Not That Easy

Self-Engineering Paralysis Is Not That Easy

Written by Sean on Tuesday, June 2, 2009

A few weeks ago, Lane wondered on Twitter why nobody did anything about becoming a paraplegic. He mused it couldn’t be that hard. I suggest that it is, actually, not as straightforward as some people might think. The more I ponder the issue, the more complications I see.

Lane said:

I VERY respectfully wonder WHY none of us will do somthin to better ourselves. Paralysis not THAT hard is it? Surg isn’t only way

Right, surgery isn’t the only way. But engineering paralysis, at the right level, in a (relatively) safe manner, with guaranteed results, is not particularly easy. It is a "problem" I have been considering for at least 30 years now. Over the years some plans have appeared more hare-brained than others, even to my own self.

I really think that those three criteria are very important. So much so I’ll go over them now:

Right level

The injury has to be at the required level. If you need an L1 injury, and your plans give you a T4 injury, or a C6 injury, you’re not going to be in the body you you’ve always needed, hence risk being unhappy. Obviously ending up with a T12 or L2 injury is "close enough".

Safe manner

There are always going to be risks to self-injury, obviously. But whichever method selected has to be relatively safe. You don’t want to end up with busted kidneys, a traumatic brain injury or with other significant injury. Death is always possible, though, for me, not something that worries me greatly.

Guaranteed results

You want to get the paralysis you need. The method should not leave you without paralysis yet with extreme nerve pain. Or should not break the spine without damaging the spinal cord.

I have been criticised by some people with disabilities by having these criteria. After all, they point out, they acquired their injury at high risk and didn’t get to pick their level of injury, and often have other injuries on top of it. This is a good point. The thing is, we haven’t chosen to feel the way we do, and there’s no point in taking such huge risks if it isn’t going to lead us to the stage we need.

I have a policy of not discussing methods of self-injury on this site. What I discuss here are how NOT to injure yourself. There are three main ways that appear feasible to give yourself paralysis.

Breaking the spine

This is the first and most obvious approach. The one most of us think about immediately. We tend to think that a good hit on the spine at the right spot will do the trick. That in and of itself raises technical/logistical difficulties. How do you hit the spine with sufficient force to break the bone, in the right spot? Elaborate setups might do it. But it’s far fetched. Then you have to consider the anatomy of the verterbrae. If you hit the spine straight on, the most likely outcome is breaking the spineous process (the bit of bone sticking out from the verterbrae). The spineous process is meant to absorb shocks to the spine, to protect it. So, you break that bit of bone, which, incidentally tends never to heal, it remains floating. You end up in a lot of pain, but the spinal cord is untouched, or jarred just enough to give you nerve pain, but no further effect.

There are typically two ways by which a spinal cord injury happens following impact/shock to the spine. One is compression, the other is a combination of direct impact with torsion

Compression

If the spine is compressed, the pressure might burst a vertebrae, and therefore damage the spinal cord. This might happen if you were to land on your feet from a significant height. If your leg bones don’t break, the shock would travel to the spine. It would probably keep going up until the body is bent and the force of impact can’t travel upwards. A fall on your arse could achieve the same thing. Here, the major problem is ensuring you get the injury at the proper level. There’s no way to make sure where, or if, you’ll burst a vertebrae. And you might also explode organs, which might be a bit messy, to say the least. This is not a viable option.

Impact + Torsion

Basically this calls for the spine to be twisted, and while that happens, impact in the right spot. Again, the logistics of doing this are rather complicated and leave lots of to chance. By twisting your back to achieve torsion, you’re making it harder to impact properly and are at high risk of damaging vital organs. Again, finding a method to hit with sufficient force, in the right place, is tricky.

Getting the right tool/object is not particularly obvious either. You don’t want something too wide, as it might not damage the spine properly. Nor too narrow so you don’t end up skewered. The edge itself should be sufficiently thin to direct most force, but not so thin that the object you use cuts you in half.

Damaging the spinal cord with sharp instrument

An other "obvious" solution is to stab yourself in the spinal cord with a sharp knife, or some such. Except that it’s not so obvious. First, you’d need to be flexible enough to reach the right spot. Then, while flexed & bent, you’d need enough strength to go through the skin, the back muscles and some tendons. If you’ve never tried it on a beef or pig carcass, you probably won’t realise how much strength you require.

Then of course, you have to come in at the right angle, having the correct entry point in order to get through the bone openings, etc.

The final nail in the coffin, almost literally your coffin, is that there are two arteries running each side of the spinal cord. The likelyhood of slicing those open while trying to get at the spinal cord is quite high. The result of slicing the blood vessel is bleeding out before help gets to you. Not a viable option.

Chemical injection

That leaves us with using some sort of chemical injected in the spinal cord to demyelinise it. This presents a multitude of barriers. Which liquid to use? Where to get it? In which proportions? How many injections are going to be needed?

There’s also a question of reach and flexibility. How do you bend to reach the right spot? Would you have the strength of will to inject several times?

There’s also a risk of the chemical "running" up the spinal fluid and either damaging higher than you wanted, or go straight to the brain. You don’t want to demyelinise your brain, I don’t think!

There’s also the fact that nerves might and do regenerate from such injections, and while that happens, the nerve pain is *intense*. And then you are stuck with having to re-inject.

Conclusion

There are many people who think they would like to be paraplegic, who, faced with a real possibility of making it happen probably would run away from it. But there are also many who would, if they could. It’s not that simple to engineer a self-injury that is safe, at the right level, and guaranteed. Which might very well be one of the reasons more people aren’t attempting it. There are several people who managed to get rid of a leg or an arm with varying gruesome methods that are totally unworkable for getting a spinal cord injury.

Having attempted self-injury myself, and obviously failed, I know how hard it is to even bring yourself to do it and get past the survival instinct. Add that strong instinct to the logistical difficulties, and I conclude that yes, it *is* that HARD.

Tags: Paralysis, Paraplegia, Self Injury, Spinal Cord Injury, Spine, Trauma

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