Reeve's Message of Recovery

Ever the optimist, Christopher Reeve is fond of saying the 1995 equestrian accident that left him a quadriplegic closed the door on one phase of an egocentric life but opened numerous other avenues: as writer, director and spinal-cord-injury activist.

"It's really a double life I'm leading," observes Reeve from his home in Bedford, N.Y. "I'm trying to balance my creative life -- writing and movies and the theater -- with research advocacy, my work as a spokesman for the disabled."

What Reeve calls "my political fundraising mode" will be engaged Thursday at the Tech Museum/San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce's annual awards dinner at the San Jose Fairmont Hotel. Reeve -- Hollywood's best-loved Superman and a much-sought-after motivational speaker -- will deliver the keynote address from his motorized, high-tech wheelchair the day before his 46th birthday. The $500-a-ticket event sold out three weeks ago.

Now able to breathe on his own for almost an hour at a stretch, Reeve has expanded his personal appearances to 50 a year. Thursday's address, on assistive technology, will contain a heartfelt thank-you to local companies, such as IBM and Intel, that have made life easier for those who can't switch on a light or access a computer in conventional manners.

"I'm going to express my gratitude to a lot of the companies in Silicon Valley working on these issues," Reeve says. "One of their greatest achievements is the voice-activated computer. It makes a huge difference for a spinal-cord victim to be able to access the Internet, to be able to communicate with other spinal-cord victims. In my case, to e-mail a scientist and specially ask what's going on in a laboratory."

SPINAL-INJURY DATABASE

Earlier this week, Reeve announced legislation that will create a spinal-injury registry database -- "so that patients can be tracked and their conditions monitored after they leave rehab. Right now they just sort of disappear."

Reeve will talk also about life since the Culpeper, Va., riding accident that left him a C3 quadriplegic. Among the litany of medical complications: blood clots behind the knee and a serious ankle infection. Night demons and self-recriminations (did he take an easy jump wrong on that fateful ride?) continue to plague him. Worse, especially for someone who was as active and independent as Reeve, is the fear of becoming a burden on loved ones.

Reeve, once an avid skier, sailor and pilot, is now cared for around the clock by aides (five), nurses (eight), office assistants (three), agents (two) and an "advance person" who reports back on ramps and wheelchair access.

"I have people I delegate things to," he explains. "I say, 'This is what I'd like to implement.' And it gets done. I'm sort of like, you know, the general at headquarters who asks people to go out on the front lines and do what's necessary."

And there's plenty to do, what with his new career as director (the Emmy-nominated "In the Gloaming"), his work in the upcoming ABC movie "Rear Window" (a remake of the Jimmy Stewart thriller that "shows how somebody with a serious disability can exist day-to-day"), his chairmanship of the American Paralysis Association, and his non-stop lobbying for research funds.

Reeve steadfastly maintains that, given the recent breakthroughs with antibodies and protein prohibitors (the key to nerve regeneration), he and other spinal-cord-injury victims will be walking in five years.

Critics say such predictions give false hope to the more than 250,000 people in that situation.

"Everybody's entitled to their opinion," allows Reeve, who has heard this too many times before. "Maybe people can't believe it can happen; it seems too soon.

...I'm not a dreamer or a romantic, but I would compare (the prediction) to JFK's challenge in 1961 to put a man on the moon at the end of the decade. He made that statement without consulting the experts. Many said he set an impossible, almost foolish, goal."

The worst skeptics are those who have been confined to a bed or a wheelchair the longest, Reeve says. They've adjusted, adapted. They don't dare hope.

'A realistic goal'

"But I've only been injured three years, at a time of tremendous research and breakthroughs. As chairman of the APA, I'm in touch with the leading scientists, and they've said five years from now is a realistic goal, provided we get adequate funding and pharmaceutical cooperation."

But patience also helps. And this is something Reeve knows all about.

"Fortunately, I'm used to a lifestyle that required tremendous discipline and patience. My life as an actor has been filled with disappointment and rejection. I can't tell you how many times I wanted a role, my heart was set on a job, but I didn't get it. That goes all the way back to age 12."

Ironically, the actor who had trouble being taken seriously after being typed as Clark Kent/Superman may see his life become a movie. Reeve is now negotiating with an independent producer for the rights to his story. "But I've told them to hang on five years, until I get out of this wheelchair. 'Then you'll have a real ending.'"

President Clinton, who has granted Reeve easy access to the White House since the accident, emerges as something of a hero in "Still Me." That role may have to be amended in the movie version.

"I'm disappointed (in him)," Reeve says. "I'm not concerned about what he does in his private life, but if it's proven that he lied to a grand jury or that he abused his power, he will have to go. The principles of the Constitution are more important than any individual....

"It's a very sad chapter in our history that he may be remembered more for this scandal and nothing else. I'm saddened by the whole affair and disgusted by the whole decision to make it public. This is one of the downsides of the Information Age. I think it's an abuse of what computers can do."