A INTRODUCTION
27
tion of the Spinal Unit at North Shore Hospital in Sydney under Dr J.Yeo, a neurologist,
which for many years has laboured under unsatisfactory accommodation.
AUSTRIA
In Austria it was the late Dr G.Neubauer, a surgeon, who after the Second World War,
following his visit to Stoke Mandeville, pioneered the modern management of traumatic
paraplegia and tetraplegia in his Rehabilitationcenter Tobelbad, near Graz, which was
set up by the Austrian Insurance Organization. This well built Institute, equipped with
all facilities for the medical and social rehabilitation of spinal cord sufferers and which
works in close association with the orthopaedic department of Graz University, was the
first of its kind to be established in a German speaking country. The present director
is Dr Zsubezky, a surgeon, who himself is a paraplegic. Sport plays an essential part
in the work of this Centre and Austria was one of the first countries to take part in the
International Stoke Mandeville Games for the Paralysed.
BELGIUM
Professor P.Houssa and his associate Dr A.Tricot have for many years specialized in the
treatment and rehabilitation of traumatic paraplegics and tetraplegics on Stoke Mande–
ville principles. Professor Houssa is the founder of the Centre de Traumatologie et de
Readaptation at the Hopital Universitaire Brugman in Brussels where he has pioneered
in problems of traumatic paraplegia. He and Dr Tricot have been the promotors of
sport for the paralysed and other severely disabled people in Belgium and since 1953
Belgium has taken part regularly in the Stoke Mandeville Games. This Centre has
developed excellently and is now associated with the University Hospital of Brussels.
CANADA
The outstanding Spinal Injuries Centre in Canada is Lyndhurst Lodge in Toronto
founded by the Canadian Paraplegic Association in 1945 and working under the direc–
tion of Dr A.Jousse who reported on 958 traumatic patients under his care (1967). This
is an autonomous Centre but has been associated in later years with Toronto University.
In recent years, a small Unit of 14 beds was set up in Manitoba. Dr B.Grogono who was
in charge of this unit gave in 1968 a thorough statistical survey of spinal cord lesions in
Canada. According to this author, the total incidence of spinal cord injuries in Canada
is about 12 per cent per million population, as compared with 15 per cent per million
in the U.S.A. He came to the conclusion that in Canada a fully co-ordinated system of
treatment and care of paraplegics and tetraplegics has yet to be established, especially
for early care, accommodation and research.
Canada and U.S.A. were the first countries to follow Great Britain's example in later
stages of the Second World War to congregate spinal cord war casualties in special
Units. Canada is a founder nation of the American Wheelchair Games, the first of which
took place in Winnipeg in 1966, and Dr R.W.Jackson is the chairman of the Canadian
Paraplegic Sports Association.
