GW student’s disability, advocacy for stem cell research are the focus of an award-winning documentary.
By Anna Miller
February 5, 1999 was a day that began like any other for 12-year-old Cody Unser. She woke up, got dressed, ate breakfast and went to school.
She can’t remember the details, but she likely chatted with friends, listened in class, ate lunch, and did a variety of other near-automatic things. But within a matter of 20 minutes, Ms. Unser’s body became paralyzed and her life forever changed.
“When you wake up in the morning, you don’t think that something is going to happen to you in less than 10 hours,” she says. “I wish I could go back and remember exactly how I looked in the mirror, what I ate for breakfast, and all those things that everybody just does.”
While at basketball practice that February afternoon, Ms. Unser had difficulty catching her breath, and soon her head pounded with a debilitating headache. Lying on the floor of the locker room with an ambulance en route, her left leg went numb. “I was scared out of my mind, but I thought that whatever was wrong, the doctor would fix it,” she recalls.
But today Ms. Unser, a 23-year-old health policy student in GW’s School of Public Health and Health Services, still does not have feeling in her leg — or in any other body part below her chest. Afflicted with transverse myelitis (TM), a rare autoimmune disorder in which the immune system attacks the spinal cord, Ms. Unser navigates her world from a wheelchair.
“Eleven years have gone by, and I have kind of found who I am in this body and in this position,” she says. “Being paralyzed gave me direction. I have a passion; I have something to live for.”
Ms. Unser has launched a foundation for TM awareness, starred in an award-winning documentary illustrating the struggles and triumphs of living with paralysis, and advocated for stem cell research and quality of life initiatives for people with disabilities.
The documentary, which the New York Times called “gripping and inspiring,” will be shown on campus tomorrow night. Titled “Cody’s First Step,” the film is narrated by actress Glenn Close and produced by Christopher Reeve Productions.
Since arriving in D.C., Ms. Unser has testified on Capitol Hill. At a Sept. 16 U.S. Senate hearing, Ms. Unser advocated for federally funded embryonic stem cell research.
“It’s frustrating to hear critics of this research say this is a path we can’t go down, and [that] adult stem cells hold just as much promise as embryonic stem cells do,” she said at the hearing. “Science is the pursuit of discovery and possibility. We should explore every opportunity and not count anything out, because I can’t wait. And I know millions of Americans now and in the future can’t wait.”
Embryonic stem cells, which have the ability to become any type of cell in the body, could ultimately become neurons replacing the damaged myelin around Ms. Unser’s spinal cord and allow messages to be sent between her brain and her muscles.
“There are things right now that affect my life now that I would love to have changed, like bladder and bowel function and sexual function — things that matter in the moment, from today to tomorrow to next week,” she says. “So I think stem cell research would help the little things come back. There is a lot more of what I am dealing with than just an inability to walk.”
One year after graduating from the University of Redlands with a self-created degree in biopolitics, Ms. Unser came to study health policy at GW, where she hopes to give voice to chronic diseases in a field more traditionally focused on infectious diseases. Though she is only a few months into her studies, Ms. Unser already feels at home in a city that shares her passions.
“Washington, D.C. is the heart of politics; this is where I know I can make the largest difference,” she says. “I am just drawn to this area, and drawn to the idea that politics can be a good thing. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and that I am where I am supposed to be.”
Ms. Unser’s documentary, “Cody’s First Step,” will be screened at the GW Marvin Center on Nov. 12 at 6 p.m. A panel including Ms. Unser and medical experts will be on hand to answer questions after the screening.
Tickets are free, but attendees are encouraged to reserve a space ahead of time at codythefirststep.eventbrite.com.
To learn more about Unser and the Cody Unser First Step Foundation, visit codysfirststep.org.
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