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Device To Aid Breathing Gets FDA OK

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 19, 2008

CLEVELAND - The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved a medical device tested about five years ago on actor Christopher Reeve to help him breathe without a ventilator.

The implantable device, called NeuRx DPS RA/4 Respiratory Stimulation System and developed by Synapse Biomedical Inc. of Oberlin, Ohio, electrically stimulates the muscles and nerves that run through the diaphragm. It allows some spinal cord injury patients to breathe for at least four hours a day without a mechanical ventilator.

Reeve was paralyzed from the neck down in a horseback riding accident in 1995. The "Superman" star received the experimental device in 2003, allowing him to breathe off a ventilator for about 15 minutes.

Reeve later used it eight hours at a time and eventually was able to go up to 20 hours off a ventilator, said Synapse president and CEO Anthony Ignagni. Reeve died in 2004 after developing a bloodstream infection from a bedsore.

The Associated Press

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