The spinal cord is the nerve cord that takes commands from the brain to the rest of our body. In turn, the body transmits information to the brain.

When the spinal cord is permanently damaged , the part of the body above the injury functions normally. However, the zone of the injury does not receive commands from the brain anymore. The zone below will keep its structure intact but will not be able to send and receive information to and from the brain. As a consequence of this, the motor, sensitive and vegetative functions are altered.

Depending on the level of the interruption, the effect can be a paraplegia (paralysis of the lower members) or a tetraplegia (paralysis of both upper and lower members).

Spinal cord injury does not mean only not being able to walk, but also an alteration of sensitivity of the body, sexual functions, sphincter control… The person changes from a healthy and independent life style to having to adapt to a new personal reality, new life style and new relationship with his or her environment.

Spinal Cord Injury can occur because of medical or traumatic causes

 

Traumatic causes

Among traumatic causes you can find traffic accidents, work accidents, sport injuries, falls, diving accidents… Always sudden and without notice.

Medical causes

The medical causes are usually spinal cord tumours, infection, vascular problems… Usually developing slowly.

The yearly number of new cases of cord injury in Spain is between 800 and 1000 .

The number of people with spinal cord injury in Spain is estimated to be more than 30000. Among them, between 70 and 80% are due to traumatic causes, being traffic accidents the most common cause.

The typical profile of a person with spinal cord injury is a male around 35 years old, with spinal cord injury caused by a traffic accident. If there are no complications, the lifespan of the patient will be equal to the rest of population.

The services offered by the Fundación del Lesionado Medular are the following:

 

This centre has functional rehabilitation services (physiotherapy and occupational therapy) and access to the different Workshops.

Services Residential Centre

The Day care Centre is funded by the Social Affairs Department of the Regional Government of Madrid. Currently, all the places are state-subsidized, therefore the access has to be arranged through Public Administration Services.

The Residential Centre has 74 places, of which 59 are currently state-subsidized by the Social Affairs Department of the Regional Government of Madrid. Therefore the Access has to be arranged through Public Administration Services for those 59 places, and for the rest, it has to be arranged through directly the FLM.

The person with a spinal cord injury interested in having access to rehabilitation has to fill in and send us the Pre-admission form for Rehabilitation Centre, downloading the following file and attaching the requested documentation.

Please forward the documentation:

  1. By fax: +34 91 477 61 82
  2. By email: areasocial@medular.organd trsocial@medular.org
  3. By mail or in person. Our address is: Camino de Valderribas Street, Number 115, Postcode 28038, Madrid

All places in the Day care Centre for people with spinal cord injury are currently state-subsidized places, therefore the access has to be arranged through Public Administration Services. In order to obtain the place, it is necessary to have the Certificate of Level of Dependency and the service of Day care Centre Place for people with physical disability within the framework of the Individualized Care Program (PIA in Spanish).

Once the Public Administration notifies the adjudication of a state-subsidized place in our centre, the admission process begins.

You have information on how to request recognition of the Degree of Dependency in the website of the Community of Madrid.

Our Residential Centre has both state-subsidized and private places.

  • State-subsidized places

The access to state-subsidized places for people with spinal cord injury in our residential centre has to be arranged through Public Administration Services. In order to obtain the place, it is necessary to have the Certificate of Level of Dependency and the service of Residential Place for people with physical disability within the framework of the Individualized Care Program (PIA in Spanish).

Once the Public Administration notifies the adjudication of a state-subsidized place in our centre, the admission process begins.

The Public Administration will inform you on how to request the Certificate of Level of Dependency

  • Private places

The person with a spinal cord injury interested in having private access to the Residential Centre has to fill in and send us the Pre-admission form for Residential Centre, downloading the following file and attaching the requested documentation.

Please forward the documentation:

  1. By fax: +34 91 477 61 82
  2. By email: areasocial@medular.organd trsocial@medular.org
  3. By mail or in person. Our address is: Camino de Valderribas Street, Number 115, Postcode 28038, Madrid , (Puente de Vallecas District), Spain.

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