There is life afterwards

There is life afterwards

Creating hope and perspectives for people with spinal paralysis.

Wetten-dass candidate Samuel Koch, pole vault ace Kira Grünberg and mountain bike crack Luca Biwer share one fate: They are paraplegic. Nationwide, there are around 2,000 victims a year. This is a drastic blow of fate for those affected and their relatives. Everything is suddenly different. And the patient has to fight back to life bit by bit. To enable him to do this, immediate medical help, comprehensive therapy measures, professional care and lifelong support beyond medicine are required.

The paraplegia centre at the SRH Klinikum Karlsbad-Langensteinbach has been fulfilling this mission for 40 years. In the course of the anniversary, the clinic invited to special medical training. The guest speakers not only looked back into the history of paraplegiology but also into the future - at new technical possibilities and innovative therapeutic approaches. In his opening remarks, Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble, President of the German Bundestag, praised and thanked doctors, therapists and nurses at the Langensteinbach Clinic.

Today, the Paraplegiology department treats 200 to 300 patients a year. The department is one of the most important centres for the treatment of paraplegics in southern Germany. Close interdisciplinary collaboration is a cornerstone of success. From the very beginning, the experts involve specialists in orthopaedics, trauma surgery, neurosurgery, general surgery, plastic surgery, neurology, psychiatry, radiology, internal medicine and urology in diagnosis and therapy. Another success factor is the range of therapies, including special training and exercise therapies. Always with one goal in mind: to give the patient the best possible independence in everyday life.

A hurdle is often the processing of the trauma and the difficulty in accepting the new situation. Here, too, the specialists are on hand to help their patients and relatives by providing advice and assistance. They encourage those affected and give appropriate tips and help to shape their lives again. Such contacts often develop into lifelong connections. This shows: A trusting, honest cooperation of all involved is the cornerstone for being able to look ahead again. Samuel Koch, Kira Grünberg and Luca Biwer and many others prove that it is possible. They have been granted a second life.

SRH Klinikum Karlsbad-Langensteinbach

The acute hospital specialises in spinal surgery, orthopaedics and traumatology, paraplegia, internal medicine, neurology, vascular surgery and psychiatry and offers treatment at the highest level. The clinic is an academic teaching hospital of the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg and a member of the Initiative Quality Medicine (IQM). With over 1,000 employees, the SRH Klinikum Karlsbad-Langensteinbach is one of the most important employers in the district. More than 30,000 patients are treated here every year, of which around 21,000 on an outpatient basis. The managing director is Jörg Schwarzer. The clinic belongs to SRH Kliniken GmbH.