Hope Happens Here: Marissa Kirkling

Life-changer.

The phrase keeps coming up as Marissa Kirkling, a spinal cord injury survivor who was given no hope for recovery at the time of her injury, describes the impact of the epidural stimulator she had implanted in 2018 as part of a clinical trial supported by the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. But it wasn’t for the reason that she had expected.

Marissa has a C4 complete spinal cord injury following a car accident in 2015 that left her quadriplegic. She was 24 at the time, pursuing a nursing degree in Arizona, far away from her hometown of Greensburg, Penn. Everything changed on that day. Her doctor told her mother she would be nothing but a “talking head” for the rest of her life, and advised her to put Marissa in a nursing home. Her mom refused, taking her instead to Craig Hospital, where, Marissa says, “they learned to deal with everyday life.”

It was around that time that Marissa found the Reeve Foundation’s website and signed onto a clinical trial registry. Two years later, she got a call from Frazier Rehab Institute at the University of Louisville, and was subsequently the first to receive the second-generation device in the ongoing clinical trial investigating epidural stimulation for chronic spinal cord injury. Epidural stimulation involves the application of a continuous electrical current — delivered by an implanted device at varying frequencies and intensities — to specific locations on the lower part of the spinal cord. The basic idea is to help the body relearn certain functions with the aid of targeted stimulation to nerves.

‘Like a New World for Me’

Going into it, she didn’t know what to expect. “Everyone wants to walk again or stand again, but I thought it would be easier to make little goals one at a time.” In the trial, she was randomized to join the cardiovascular (CV) group, which focuses on addressing blood pressure dysregulation. Other groups focused on standing and involuntary movement.

“I was kind of bummed at first that I was in the CV group, where you just sit there and measure your blood pressure all the time,” Marissa says. “I was like, wow, this is going to be boring. But after a while I was glad because fixing my blood pressure helped me to do everything else better.”

“I was like a whole new person. I didn’t realize how bad I had actually felt until I felt great. I had more energy. I felt so much more focused. It was like a new world for me.”