The sudden death of Superman actor and spinal cord research advocate Christopher Reeve on Sunday has left a giant hole in the hearts of disabled children and neurobiology researchers in Israel, which he visited in the summer of 2003.

"He was a great example to our graduates when he spent the day with us," said Dr. Shirley Meyer, director-general of the Alyn Orthopedic Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in Jerusalem's Kiryat Hayovel neighborhood.

"He made an incredible impression and served as a role model for them. He showed how you can continue to live with your dreams and aspirations even when disabled. He was hungry for every improvement.

"Our disabled children in wheelchairs admired him, and now we'll discuss his death with them," Meyer said.

Reeve, who was paralyzed from the neck down in a horseback riding accident in 1995, died Sunday of heart failure resulting from a pressure sore which developed into a serious infection.

"It was unexpected. Deaths of seriously disabled people from pressure sores is not so rare," Meyer said, "even though he had excellent, round-the-clock care and equipment."

Prof. Michal Schwartz of the neurobiology department at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot said: "We are all in shock. He was a great personal example and symbol, and his death is a great loss to our spinal injury research community. From the human aspect, he was outstanding, since he turned his disability into power. He amazed us with his physical abilities to help himself and others and to promote the cause around the world."

Reeve was one of 400,000 people in the US suffering from spinal cord paralysis. Although he initially had no feeling below his neck, his dogged determination to pursue intensive physical therapy led to the return of sensitivity to touch and pinprick and some muscle movement.

Schwartz, who has already sent a condolence letter to his widow, Dana Reeve, and her family, added: "We were friends. He had many great expectations. He hoped that all scientists would join together to solve his problem and those of other people with paralysis. He hoped to walk again, but I think he learned to prepare to live with his disability even more than the possibility of his walking."

She learned of his recent illness when she was supposed to receive an award together with Reeve from a nonprofit organization in New York before Yom Kippur. "I was kept from attending due to the strike at the airport, and I was told he couldn't attend because of a serious infection," she said.

Schwartz has developed a promising treatment for spinal injury that could help spinal cord victims regain movement in their paralyzed limbs. It is being developed by Proneuron Biotechnologies, a company she founded in Rehovot based on her discovery that microphages (immune system cells) can be brought to the site of a central nervous system injury and serve as part of the repair mechanism to promote renewed growth of damaged nerve fibers.

Schwartz, who visited Reeve three times in his New York home, the first time soon after his injury, noted that he and his Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation promoted the subject of spinal cord injury and raised many millions of dollars in research funds around the world.

"He was very impressed by the level of spinal cord research and the courage of Israeli researchers in going against convention. He recognized researchers here as being in the forefront. Research in this subject is very difficult. Few scientists were willing to do it because such meager resources were available, and there was very little reward because the progress is so slow and difficult," the Weizmann neurobiologist said. "But Christopher Reeve upgraded it by increasing awareness about it not only among researchers but also among potential donors and government policy makers."

"Staying in control, making decisions about your life is really important when you are disabled," Reeve told the British Medical Journal in an interview in June 2003. "Just because your body may be broken or not functioning doesn't mean that your heart and your mind aren't functioning. In fact, you have an opportunity to develop your heart and your mind in a way you might not have discovered otherwise."

Reeve promoted the application of stem cell research not only for treating spinal cord injury, but also for an eventual cure for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, leukemia and other cancers, diabetes, and a long list of other chronic disorders.

Schwartz fears that with Reeve's death, funding and the level of research around the world will decline because Reeve was such a powerhouse. "But I hope his wife and children will keep it going in his memory," she said.

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1097468031741&p=1006953079845