Turnbull’s legacy lives on at spinal-cord injury symposium
Reporter who died this year is honoured as researchers gather for 14th-annual event
Dr. Charles Tator will always remember late Star reporter and tireless spinal-cord research advocate Barbara Turnbull as someone who put others first.
As the neurosurgeon on call the night in 1983 when Turnbull was shot in the neck during a robbery at a Mississauga Becker’s where she worked as a clerk, Tator was responsible for much of her early care.
He was able to remove the bullet that had pressed on her spinal cord, but she was left a quadriplegic at age 18.
“When I would make rounds in the evening, while she was in the acute stage, she would look up from her bed and say, ‘You look tired, I think you should go home,’ ” Tator recalls.
“There she was, a teenager, lying there, unable to move anything but her neck — she could only really move her head — and she was think- ing of me.”
It’s that generosity of spirit that was on display Friday at the 14th annual Tator-Turnbull spinal cord injury symposium, at Toronto Western Hospital. In Turnbull’s honour, a $50,000 award was presented to promote research on improving the recovery potential of people with spinal cord injuries.
It was the first such symposium since Turnbull’s death in May at the age of 50, from complications due to pneumonia — and the only one without her in 14 years.
“She was here every year. Through thick and thin, rainy days, snowy days, she made it her business to be here to welcome people, to comment on research going on,” Tator said. “But my view is, she is here.” After graduating at the top of her class from the journalism program at Arizona State University, Turnbull went on to become a talented and well-loved reporter at the Toronto Star.
“Because she was so brave and so positive about life, she was able to function beautifully as a person,” Tator said. “Even though her brain was essentially disconnected from her body.”
She launched the Barbara Turnbull Foundation to raise awareness and money for spinal cord research. The $50,000 award is given annually to the top Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) spinal cord research grant, and is supported through a partnership between the Barbara Turnbull Foundation, Brain Canada and the CIHR.
McGill University researcher Dr. Samuel David was this year’s recipient. He said he plans to use it to study how iron affects spinal cord injuries and other neurological conditions, in hopes of finding new ways to help people like Turnbull.
“It is a very big honour, and I had met Barbara a few times,” he said in an interview before being presented with the award.
“She has really done a lot for the field, raising awareness about this area of research. All the progress that we make is because of the research that we do,” he added.
“If there’s no funding in this field, we won’t be able to see that progress.”
There is also an award in Turnbull’s name at Ryerson University, given annually to help a student with a disability studying in the school’s faculty of communication and design.
She was named to the Order of Canada in 2015 and was also the recipient of a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.
Turnbull’s mother, Iris Collins, and sisters Alison Turnbull and Lynn Turnbull also attended the symposium.
“I’m just really happy that it’s going to continue,” said Collins, “and proud of her.”