A Doctor’s Mission: Finding a Cure for Spinal Cord Injuries

DOCTOR AS PATIENT World-renowned spine surgeon Rex Marco, paralyzed in a mountain-biking accident, navigates a different world now. “Life has a plan for me,” he says. (Photo: lawellphoto.com)

Sometimes, life’s unexpected detour leads to the clearest of paths.

For Dr. Rex Marco, a nationally renowned spinal surgeon and musculoskeletal oncologist who was paralyzed in a mountain biking accident last year (see When Life Has Other Plans: a spine surgeon’s journey with quadriplegia, October 2020) there’s a new life mission: finding a cure for spinal cord injuries.

The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation is collaborating with Marco through a $1.1 million Rex Marco M.D. Fund, a gift from the doctor’s Spine and Extremity Tumor Research Endowment. The collaboration is aimed at helping to accelerate groundbreaking research toward cures and provide resources to improve quality of life for those impacted by paralysis.

“He will be a chief medical ambassador for us,” says Peter Wilderotter, president and CEO of the Reeve Foundation. “We are going to work with him to become the chief voice of what a cure looks like for those living with a spinal cord injury. He brings passion, intellect and an understanding of what the injury is and what is needed to help people navigate their journey with it. And he has such a spirit, soul and passion for helping others. He’s willing to bring in people to think about paralysis in a way that it’s not been thought about before. Being disabled doesn’t mean un-abled and there’s a lot one can do. Our collaboration with Dr. Marco is the perfect intersection of his life’s work with what the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation has been about during our entire existence.”

Marco will also be involved in the Reeve Quality of Life Grant Program Committee that reviews nonprofit grant proposals for projects and initiatives that impact people living with paralysis, their families and caregivers.

“With his unique perspective — that of a physician and someone living with a spinal cord injury — he will be at the center of an agenda that drives innovation across the care-cure continuum, bringing together the scientific arena, industry and the individuals and families living with paralysis in bold new ways,” Wilderotter adds.

Marco is excited about the opportunity. “I knew that I could be angry, but I didn’t feel angry,” he says of his accident. “I knew there was a plan for my life. This is part of that plan.

“I wanted to do what Christopher Reeve did. I wanted to help raise money for research and help find treatments for people with spinal cord injuries,” he says of Reeve, best known for his acting role in the Superman movie franchise. Reeve devoted his life fighting for medical advancements for spinal cord injuries after being paralyzed in a horseback riding accident.

“Cures are possible, but only if we work together,” Marco says. “Through this collaboration and ongoing support of the Marco Fund at the Reeve Foundation, gifts will be maximized and channeled to scientific endeavors that have the greatest potential for success.”

Editor's note: Read more about Dr. Rex Marco's journey here.