He won't rest till there's a cure for spinal cord injury

Mike Janssen in his shop

Janssen heads the Spinal Cord Society’s Twin Cities chapter

First you notice the smile. Next you see a grounded, friendly, handsome man in love with his wife. Then you notice the wheelchair. The world has always been propelled by people who are obsessed with an idea or a mission that must be undertaken. Mike Janssen’s mission is to cure spinal cord injuries.   

For the past 10 years, Janssen has headed the Spinal Cord Society’s Twin Cities chapter. SCS is an international organization headquartered in Fergus Falls, Minn., laser-focused on funding research for a cure. SCS members do not want to be paralyzed and are determined to do something about it. Janssen refuses to be portrayed as happy and heroic. “Show me as the anti-politically correct champion. I detest PC terms such as ‘physically challenged’ or ‘differently-abled’ when applied to spinal cord injury because all they do is mask the reality of this injury. They are designed to make us, and more importantly everyone else, feel better about ourselves. But it’s only when you call a cripple a cripple and see it for what it is that you’ll get up the determination to change it.”  

Janssen and his wife Matty live on the Ewe Turn Ranch, a 5-acre farm in Inver Grove Heights. They share their space with llamas, rheas, horses, sheep, a peacock, a cat family, and Shep, an Australian Shepard. Janssen designed and helped build the farm’s red barn; Matty takes care of the animals. Janssen modified their garden tractor so he can mow the grass. “I drive a big tractor with a front-end loader that I use to plow snow, clear brush and shovel seemingly tons of manure.” He also works on car engines, with his wife his invaluable “extension” when he needs help. Janssen, in his spare time, coaches a women’s softball team, something he has been doing for 28 years.  

Mike and Matty have been married over 20 years. After their fifth month of marriage, Mike was injured in a parasailing accident that left him a quadriplegic. “The chute collapsed somehow and I did a header into the ground from about 40-50 feet up. This was in March in Minnesota, so we were doing this over land, not water, which was probably a good thing or I would have drowned. That would have been the easy way out!”  

Soon after the accident, Janssen discovered and became active in the Spinal Cord Society. A powerful and solid man, his words and smile cut through to a truth: “You either get it and understand why you need to be involved with cure, or you don’t and are willing to settle for being a cripple for the rest of your life . . .” Every chapter newsletter Janssen publishes includes Eldridge Cleaver’s quote, “You’re either part of the solution or you’re part of the problem.”   

According to Janssen, the most difficult thing is getting people with a spinal cord injury involved in their own cure. “Look around – look at MS, look at breast cancer – these are people with an affliction who are out there on their own behalf. With spinal cord injury, we can’t motivate people to do that, and I don’t understand why. The thing I tell people is, if you’re not involved, why should anybody else care?”         

Janssen cares passionately. His involvement with Spinal Cord Society is a natural fit. SCS was founded in 1978 in Fergus Falls by Dr. Charles Carson who was injured in 1976. When told recovery was impossible, Carson didn’t buy it. SCS was born out of Carson’s dissatisfaction with the direction and priorities of spinal cord treatment and research. Under his leadership, SCS runs its own lab in Colorado, funding research aimed purely on curing the adult chronic injury.  They have pioneered computerized walking and autologous cell transplants.   

Currently, researchers are pursuing regrowth of neural fibers in animal tissue and showing promising results.  SCS members have access to the scientists and their discoveries through teleconferences. “We can grill them with our own concerns,” said Janssen.  Janssen would like his legacy to be one of cure, not merely one of endless care and maintenance of the spinal cord injured. The logo for the Spinal Cord Society is the black and white universal icon for a handicapped person in a wheelchair, with an “x” slashing the figure. Their motto, “Cure Not Care,” is spare and direct. “We won’t get a cure unless we work for it. If we, and by we, I primarily mean we the spinal cord injured, do work for it, push for it and demand it, there’s no telling what we can do. If we sit around and do nothing, we’ll no doubt get exactly what we deserve. And why would we not want to be cured?”  

For more information: 

Spinal Cord Society - Twin Cities chapter

National Resources: 

Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation

Clearinghouse on Disability Information

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR)

National Rehabilitation Information Center (NARIC)