A INTRODUCTION
31
tation (N.O.R.). A hostel of 20 beds will be opened in the near future for paraplegics
whose home conditions are unsatisfactory but who can be employed in the Dublin area.
From 1961-67, 146 new traumatic cases were admitted, the majority 109 (28 complete
and 81 incomplete) were cervicals (Gregg, 1967). Dr Gregg and his team have made an
important contribution to the immediate transfer of traumatic paraplegics and tetra–
plegics to the Centre by organizing a 'flying squad' consisting of a doctor, a nurse and an
orderly who, on request, will immediately bring in the paralysed, either by ambulance
or helicopter, from the place of accident or any hospital in the country. This immediate
admission has proved both a life saving measure and the best prevention of early urinary
infection and pressure sores caused by inadequate initial management in hospitals
neither acquainted with nor equipped for the specialized treatment of these patients.
Sport is included in the rehabilitation, and the Irish team has taken part regularly in the
Olympics for the Paralysed.
ISRAEL
Until recently there has been fragmentation of the management of traumatic paraplegics
and tetraplegics in Israel and acute cases were treated in orthopaedic units such as Tel
Hashomer or in neurosurgical or general surgical units, while the long-term rehabilitation
was carried out in physical medicine departments such as Hadassah Hospital, Jerusalem,
or in a general rehabilitation hospital such as Assaf Harofe, Zrifin, where Dr Ralph Spira,
a former medical officer at Stoke Mandeville Centre is engaged in the rehabilitation of
polios and paraplegics in later stages. He has done detailed and most valuable research
on sport in these patients. At the Loewenstein Hospital Rehabilitation Centre, Raanana,
under Dr T.Nejemson (120 beds) 20 beds have been set aside for the treatment of
paraplegics. The late Professor Adler, Chief of the Department of Physical Medicine
at the Hadassah, gave in 1968 a survey of his paraplegic patients who were transferred
to him for rehabilitation either with infected urinary tract or pressure sores (Adler,
1968). The authorities concerned have been increasingly dissatisfied with the fragmen–
tation of management of traumatic paraplegic patients and having regard to the increased
number of war casualties and road accidents, the Ministry of Defence in co-operation
with the Ministry of Health have taken the initiative at the instigation of Mr A. Fink,
the Director of Rehabilitation, to build a Spinal Injuries Centre at Tel Hashomer
now named Sheba Hospital for the comprehensive treatment and rehabilitation of
spinal paraplegics and tetraplegics. I had the honour of laying the foundation stone of
the Centre at a ceremony on 26 October 1972. This Centre will bear my name. Medical,
nursing and physiotherapy staff have been trained at Stoke Mandeville and Dr Rozin
will be the Director of the unit. Sport for the disabled is highly developed in Israel
and since 1954 a team of paralysed athletes has taken part in the International Stoke
Mandeville Games. Moreover, the XX Games in 1968 took place in Israel with 750
competitors and 300 escorts.
ITALY
It was the Italian National Institute for Labour Accident Insurance (I.N.A.I.L.) which
in 1957 set up for their injured workers an autonomous Spinal Injuries Centre of no
