Marc Buoniconti said his father, , explained the secret to the success of their nonprofit and its fundraising efforts simply: 鈥淲e鈥檙e just not good listeners.鈥�
In the 40 years since Marc Buoniconti, then a college football linebacker at the Citadel, was paralyzed during a routine tackle, they have been told countless times that it was a problem that couldn鈥檛 be fixed. The Buonicontis didn鈥檛 listen.
Instead, through the fund that bears their name, they have helped raise more than $550 million for The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, and improved the lives of millions with spinal cord and brain injuries.
鈥淭he Buoniconti Fund has lasted because we鈥檙e relentless,鈥� Marc Buoniconti recently told The Associated Press. 鈥淲e never give up. When we see a challenge, we face it head-on and don鈥檛 stop until we find a solution. It鈥檚 that determination, that refusal to quit that鈥檚 kept us going all these years.鈥�
That drive has also led The Miami Project to expand its work beyond curing paralysis. Its research center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine now also studies neurological diseases and disorders including Alzheimer鈥檚 disease and Parkinson鈥檚 disease, and it is testing the brain-computer interface implant from .
Changing medicine by creating a hub for paralysis work
Dr. Barth A. Green, chairman of The Miami Project, who co-founded the organization in 1985 with Nick Buoniconti, says the most surprising developments from the center have been the broadest ones.
鈥淓very operating room in the world that puts people to sleep monitors their nervous system for safety,鈥� Dr. Green said. 鈥淭hat was all developed at The Miami Project.鈥�
Therapeutic hypothermia, where the body is cooled after an injury to protect the brain and spinal cord, is another widely used treatment developed at the center.
Dr. Green said that before Buoniconti鈥檚 accident he had been working on helping those who had been paralyzed for 20 years. Yet there wasn鈥檛 a hub for that work until The Miami Project was established.
It provided a home for him and 鈥渢housands of scientists and researchers in Miami and around the world, who were equally engaged by the opportunity to change people鈥檚 everyday quality of life and their opportunities to have more function and a better opportunity to be mobile and do things they never dreamt they could before.鈥�
Unexpected advances through multidisciplinary approaches
Miami Project Scientific Director W. Dalton Dietrich III said gathering those people from a variety of disciplines 鈥� neuroscientists, researchers, clinicians, biomedical engineers 鈥� into one building has led to unexpected advances.
鈥淣ot one particular treatment is going to cure paralysis,鈥� Dietrich said. 鈥淪o I鈥檝e tried to look at other disciplines to bring into the project to help us achieve that goal.鈥�
One new, multidisciplinary area, neuromodulation, is 鈥渟omething we never thought about five years ago,鈥� Dietrich said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just an exciting area where you can stimulate these residual circuits after brain injury or spinal cord injury in patients and they start moving their limbs.鈥�
The Buoniconti Fund鈥檚 support for the center helps accelerate research in these areas by funding early trials. That, in turn, makes it easier to eventually receive grants from government agencies like the National Institutes of Health or the Department of Defense, Dietrich said.
Marc Buoniconti says 鈥渋t鈥檚 hard to put into words鈥� seeing so many people rally behind him and the millions of others who have been paralyzed.
鈥淲hat started as a promise to help me walk again became a mission to help millions,鈥� he said. 鈥淓very resource, every dollar, every hour given is a testament to the belief that we can change lives.鈥�
Mark Dalton, co-chairman of Tudor Investment Corp., said that belief resonated with him and made him want to get involved with The Buonicontis even before he met them.
鈥淚 had tremendous admiration for him as a father who was never going to give up on finding a cure for what ailed his son,鈥� Dalton said. 鈥淎nd his son was a representation of millions of other people.鈥�
鈥楾hey hooked me鈥�
Once he learned more about The Miami Project, Dalton said he was impressed by its science-driven approach. Its setting on a university campus was also important to the former chairman of the board of trustees at Denison and Vanderbilt universities.
鈥淭hey put the line in the water,鈥� said Dalton, who now chairs the Buoniconti Fund鈥檚 biggest annual fundraiser, The Great Sports Legends Dinner. 鈥淭hey hooked me. I鈥檓 all in.鈥�
That鈥檚 a common feeling around The Miami Project, which counts legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus and Grammy winner Gloria Estefan among its supporters. And it鈥檚 something Marc Buoniconti says he does not take for granted.
He hopes The Miami Project鈥檚 work will continue to expand.
鈥淢y biggest dream is for our researchers to find a way to fully repair the nervous system,鈥� Buoniconti said. 鈥淲hen we do that, we鈥檒l change the entire landscape for paralysis and so many other neuro conditions. We鈥檒l give so many people their lives back. That鈥檚 what keeps me going, and that鈥檚 what makes every struggle to this point worth it.鈥�
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