Surgeon paralyzed in fall off bike donates $1.1 million
Rex Marco heard a crack when he flipped over the handlebars of his bike in Memorial Park last year.
He wasn’t sure where the sound came from as he lay on the ground, trying to stay calm. Marco asked his friend to touch his leg, but he couldn’t feel it. It was then that Marco knew he was paralyzed and that the crack he heard was probably in his neck.
Marco is a nationally renowned spinal surgeon and musculoskeletal oncologist. He combined the two specialties to save lives, such as teenagers paralyzed in car accidents and cancer patients with tumors embedded in their spines.
The surgeon started his career at MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2000 and has since been a professor in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the University of TexasMedical School at Houston, where he was also the chief of spine surgery and musculo skeletal oncology. He also held faculty appointments with the Baylor College of Medicine, Rice University and the Weill Cornell Medical College/Methodist Hospital Orthopedic Surgery Residency.
But, on that day — July 21, 2019 — he became a spinal cord patient.
“I knew that when I was in the ICU, and really when I was on the trail, I knew that there was a plan,” Marco said. “I didn’t know exactly what the plan was, but to me, part of the plan was going to be to help people with spinal cord injuries.”
Earlier this month, Marco donated $1.1million from the Rex Marco, M.D., Fund of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation to help accelerate research to cure spinal cord injuries and improve quality of life for those impacted by paralysis.
The injury
On this regular bike ride through Memorial Park, the group had a challenge — any time a rider put their foot down, that rider must do 10 pushups.
At a fork in the trail, Marco saw most riders go right, but he also saw a clearer path down a hill to the left.
“On the right, I saw some roots and I thought that if I went over them, Imight put my foot down,” Marco said. “Looking left I saw a clear path, and when I got the bottom area, my tire stuck. I’m not sure what it got stuck in, but it just didn’t move and I flipped over. Everything after that was so fast.”
He heard the crack. As Marco’s friends rushed over and called 911, he thought about stories of people being able to recover if they are able to undergo treatment quickly.
“I was hoping that might be the case, but I knew that there was no one there that had that level of expertise to do that,” he said. “So, I had them try to stabilize my neck.”
He directed his friends and EMS to pull him up on to the trail and on to a backboard so he could get his neck in better alignment as soon as possible. It took about two and a half hours to get to the emergency room, where he underwent surgery and was diagnosed with quadriplegia.
The fund
Marco selected the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation on Nov. 13 because of its reputation for advancing scientific discoveries for spinal cord injuries.
He believes his accident has given him an understanding and empathy for his patients and is part of a larger plan for life, an attitude he shares with the Reeve Foundation.
The Marco Fund’s $1.1 million gift will fund research, including support for a company committed to developing neuromodulation therapies.
“It just shows that there’s this thing in life called renewal,” said Peter-Wilderotter, president and CEO of the Reeve Foundation. “I just felt our founders looking down and saying this is a relay race for justice and Rex is going to carry Christopher’s baton for a while and help us.”
Life after the hospital
Marco needs innovation on spinal cord injuries if he has any hope of becoming independent again. Realizing that is difficult, he said, but every day he exercises and does physical therapy. Right now, electrical stimulation is being used in hopes of helping his muscles work again.
Three months after his injury, his son Kai was born. Marco still watches television with his mom, picks up his son and attends educational meetings. Marco said he used to have a lot more visitors before COVID-19, but one of his friends offered him an enlightening perspective on the effects of coronavirus.
“Now, almost everyone can start to empathize with what it’s like to be quadriplegic or paraplegic because the world is paralyzed,” Marco said. “Andwe can’t just do things like we used to do. We have to think about everything we do and how it’s going to affect other people.”