Why couldn Mr. Reeve breathe on his own?
After a high cervical spinal cord injury, signals sent from the brain can no longer flow through the spinal cord to activate the respiratory muscles. As a result, his breathing muscles are paralyzed. Mr. Reeve’s injury was at the cervical (C2) level. Consequently, he requires a mechanical ventilator to do the work of the inspiratory muscles that are responsible for causing air to move into his lungs.
