why can someone who’s a paraplegic or has lost all feeling in their legs due to a spinal injury, still bend over and stretch their back like normal?

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why can someone who’s a paraplegic or has lost all feeling in their legs due to a spinal injury, still bend over and stretch their back like normal?

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2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Depending on the location of the spinal cord injury (left, right, anterior, or posterior spinal cord), it is possible to lose either just the motor function or just sensation in a particular part of the body. Therefore, someone could have an injury on the back of their spinal cord (losing feeling in regions below that spinal level) while still maintaining motor function as long as the front portion of the spinal cord isn’t damaged. In addition, generally spinal cord injuries usually only affect the areas below the injury itself, so someone may lose feeling in their legs and lower abdomen but still have feeling in their upper abdomen and chest.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because the nerves that control the legs are lower in the spine than where the injury happened.