Categotry Archives: Extraordinary People

Matthew R. Nagle, a quadriplegic who once participated in a groundbreaking, mind-control experiment, died on July 23 of a blood infection. He was 27.
A Massachusetts native, Nagle played football at Weymouth High School and set a record his senior year for making 33 unassisted tackles. The diehard New England Patriots and Red Sox fan had just passed the postal service exam when his life was forever altered by a stranger.
On July 3, 2001, a brawl broke out after the Fourth of July fireworks display at Wessagusset Beach in Weymouth, Mass. Nagle jumped into the fray to help one of his friends and sustained a stab wound to the neck. The 8-inch blade severed his spinal cord. The attack left him paralyzed from the shoulders down and unable to breathe without a ventilator. When scar tissue grew over his vocal cords, Nagle lost most of his ability to talk as well. The final years of his life were spent at his parents’ house and at the New England Sinai Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in Stoughton, Mass.
Determined to walk again, Nagle volunteered to become the first person to have a sensory chip tapped directly into his brain. The Braingate Neural Interface System was conceived by John Donoghue, the head of Brown University’s neuroscience department and a cofounder of Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, a Massachusetts company that develops neural stimulation, sensing and processing technology. Although other researchers are working on similar brain-computer interfaces, Cyberkinetics was the first to receive FDA approval for human testing.
In 2004, researchers implanted a 4-millimeter square silicon chip studded with 100 hair-thin microelectrodes into Nagle’s primary motor cortex, the area of the brain that controls movement. Soon after the surgery, he was able to move a cursor on a computer and control a television with his thoughts. Nagle could also draw on a computer, check e-mail, play simple online video games and command a prosthetic hand to open and close. Researchers at Cyberkinetics hope the results of the Braingate experiment will someday help people with spinal cord injuries, Lou Gehrig’s disease or other conditions that impair movement and communication.
Due to FDA regulations, and the set parameters of the study, the Braingate sensory chip was removed from Nagle’s brain a year after it was embedded. Electrodes were later implanted to stimulate Nagle’s diaphragm, which allowed him to breathe without a ventilator. This also enabled him to pilot a motorized wheelchair by blowing into a sip-and-puff tube.
Nagle slipped into a coma on July 17 and was diagnosed with sepsis, an infection of the blood. After doctors declared him brain dead, Nagle’s parents, Ellen and Pat Nagle, donated his liver, kidneys and his skin to patients on the organ donor registry.
The Matthew Nagle Spinal Injury Foundation was established soon after the attack. In the past six years, benefit dinners, golf tournaments and charity bike races have helped the non-profit organization raise thousands for people with spinal cord injuries. Dr. Jon Mukand, one of the principal investigators of the BrainGate trial, plans to write a book about Nagle tentatively titled, “At Knifepoint: Brain Implant, Stem Cells, and Matthew Nagle’s Quest for Recovery.”
Nicholas Cirignano, the man who stabbed Nagle, was convicted in 2005 of armed assault with intent to kill and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. He is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence; however, the Norfolk County District Attorney’s office plans to treat Nagle’s death as a homicide.

James Michael Cronin devoted his life to helping abused primates and fighting the illegal trade of these creatures.
The New York native began his career with animals working as a keeper at the Bronx Zoo. After moving to Britain in 1980, he worked at the Howletts Wild Animal Park in Kent and developed a successful primate breeding program that allowed endangered species to thrive and return to their natural habitat.
In 1987, Cronin obtained a $35,000 business loan and turned an abandoned pig farm into the Monkey World Ape Rescue Centre. The 65-acre wildlife park and animal sanctuary in Dorset, England is home to more than 160 rescued primates from 13 countries. Half a million people visit the park each year.
It was through Monkey World that Cronin met his wife, Alison Ames. A fellow American who was studying biological anthropology at Cambridge University, Ames visited the park in 1993 to discuss fencing techniques. Cronin was instantly smitten with the behavioral specialist and spent six months wooing her by phone until she agreed to go on a date with him. They wed three years later and became a passionate conservation team. Cronin helped raise funds for the maintenance of Monkey World; Ames ran the academic side of the park, teaching children, parents, teachers and animal lovers about its inhabitants.
When they weren’t caring for primates in Great Britain, the Cronins traveled around the world investigating reports of animal cruelty and fighting for the rights of apes. They rescued orangutans forced to perform in Thai boxing rings, chimpanzees used as tourist props on Mexican beaches and a Capuchin monkey living in solitary confinement with no water at the back of a British pet shop. The couple also helped find homes for abused primates and urged governments around the globe to enforce international treaties and laws aimed at protecting these animals from illegal hunting, smuggling and experimentation.
For past 10 years, the Cronins produced the TV series “Monkey Business,” which documented day-to-day life at the park and their rescue missions and undercover investigations throughout Europe and Asia. The program airs on Animal Planet; new episodes are scheduled for broadcast in the U.S. this fall.
Monkey World received the Animal Welfare Award from the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare in 2003. Last year, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Cronin a Member of the British Empire for his services to animal welfare.
Cronin died on March 17 of liver cancer. He was 55.

Altovise Renee Williams, an 841-pound Texas woman who was the largest female ever to undergo gastric bypass surgery, died on March 4 of a heart attack. She was 29.

The child of heavy parents, Williams struggled with obesity for most of her life. In the seventh grade, she weighed 299 pounds. Williams married at 15 and had two children by the time she was 21. When the extra pregnancy weight became oppressive, she took diet pills and sought the aid of nutritionists — all to no avail. Although Williams didn’t suffer from a thyroid problem, she felt genetics was a major cause of her obesity. “When you don’t have that thing in your head that tells you you’re full, it’s disgusting the amount of food that you can eat,” she once said.

In 2003, a drunk driver smashed into her SUV. Williams’ left leg was crushed in the accident, leaving her unable to walk. After the crash, she was completely bedridden and gained more than 400 pounds. Her home became a prison; the TV her only window to the world. Desperate to lose the weight, Williams sought the help of more than a dozen doctors. They all considered her a high-risk case and refused to take her on as a patient. Finally, Dr. Clifton Thomas and Dr. Younan Nowzaradan agreed to perform a weight reduction operation.

Gastric bypass surgery makes the stomach smaller and allows food to bypass part of the small intestine. Patients feel full more quickly, consume fewer calories and lose weight. This procedure has become more popular in recent years; more than 140,000 gastric bypasses are expected to be performed in 2007. The surgery is typically geared toward people with a body mass index (BMI) between 35 and 60, which the medical community defines as morbidly obese. Since Williams’ BMI was 137.5, the procedure was much riskier to perform. Not having the operation, however, would have surely meant a severely shortened lifespan.

Without complications, Dr. Nowzaradan predicted that she would lose more than 650 pounds over the course of three years. Williams simply hoped the operation would make her healthier and more independent. She dreamed of taking her two daughters to the park and marrying her fiance, Jayson Clover, on Valentine’s Day in 2008. She also wanted to have corrective surgery on her crushed leg and several other operations to remove excess skin.

The gastric bypass surgery took place on Feb. 20 at Renaissance Hospital in Houston and lasted for five hours. In the 12 days after her operation, Williams lost 67 pounds. Then, without warning, she began suffering chest pains followed by a massive heart attack. Doctors were unable to revive her.

Elizabeth “Lizzie” Jones Bolden, the oldest person in the world, died on Dec. 11. She was 116.
Born Aug. 15, 1890, Bolden was the daughter of freed slaves. That same year, the U.S. 7th Cavalry massacred nearly 300 Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee in South Dakota. Both Idaho and Wyoming became U.S. states. Ellis Island opened as an immigration station and Congress established California’s Yosemite National Park. William B. Puris patented the fountain pen. The Mormon Church renounced polygamy. And the first U.S. edition of a Sherlock Holmes novel (“Study in Scarlet”) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was published.
Lizzie wed Lewis Bolden in 1908. The couple tilled the cotton fields, first as croppers then as tenant farmers. She could barely read or write, but managed to earn extra money by doing laundry and ironing for neighbors. Known as “Momma Lizzie,” Bolden had seven children, 40 grandchildren, 75 great-grandchildren, 150 great-great-grandchildren, 220 great-great-great grandchildren and 75 great-great-great-great grandchildren. She was widowed in 1950 and never remarried.
The supercentarian had a reputation within the family as an excellent cook with a penchant for vegetables and sweets. The longtime member of New Wright’s Chapel Baptist Church rarely drank, yet she occasionally dipped snuff, chewed tobacco and smoked a pipe. Bolden suffered a stroke in 2004. She spent the remaining years of her life living in a nursing home, saying very little and sleeping most of the time.
In August 2005, the Guinness World Records recognized Bolden as the oldest person in the world; her age was authenticated using U.S. Census records. However, the title was stripped after the organization learned Maria Esther de Capovilla of Ecuador was both alive and older. Bolden regained the title last September upon Capovilla’s death. Emiliano Mercado del Toro, 115, of Puerto Rico, is now the oldest person in the world.

Rosalie Bradford, who once held world records for being the heaviest woman on the planet and for losing the most weight, died on Nov. 29. Cause of death was not released. She was 63.
The Pennsylvania native battled obesity for much of her life. She was abandoned at six months old and raised by a baby sitter. After her foster mother died during her 12th year, Bradford turned to food for comfort. By the 8th grade, she weighed 309 lbs.
The habit of substituting food for comfort and self-esteem eventually turned into a life-long addiction, one that caused Bradford’s weight to balloon. In 1987, the Guinness World Records gave her the title of Heaviest Woman in the World. At the time, she weighed 1,050 pounds and was 8 feet wide. Her daily 10,000-calorie-a-day diet involved consuming coffee, 10 slices of cheese on toast, five large pancakes, bacon and eggs, half a chocolate cake, four rounds of ham and cheese or turkeys andwiches with extra butter, a large plate of mashed potatoes with pork chops or roast beef and vegetables and a large pizza or steak sandwich with fried onions and melted cheese.
Bradford’s weight problem was exacerbated by blood poisoning in her leg. She underwent 12 operations to repair the condition, but the required 18 months of bed rest immoblized and depressed her. As was her habit, Bradford ate to compensate. Eventually she was unable to leave her bed; her husband and son even celebrated Christmas there. Bathing took up to 2 hours because there was so much of her to wash.
Bradford spent decades trying to lose the weight, but would always gain it back again. This up-and-down cycle, combined with her fragile emotional state, led her to attempt suicide. In response, a concerned friend wrote to Richard Simmons in 1989 and asked for his help. The fitness guru responded by calling Bradford at her Florida home and encouraging her to lose the weight. Her first step? Clapping to one of Simmon’s workout videos. Each clap inspired Bradford to continue moving — no easy task for a woman of her size. However, by following Simmons’ 1,500-calorie-a-day “Deal A Meal” plan and exercising more, she lost 736 lbs.
In 1992, Bradford weighed 314 lbs. when the Guinness Book of Records bestowed her with another title: Woman Who Lost the Most Weight. She went back to school and earned a degree in psychology from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. In recent years, Bradford toured the country giving motivational speeches at weight-loss seminars.

Steam Train Maury, the Grand Patriarch of the Hobos, caught the westbound home on Nov. 18 after suffering complications from a stroke. He was 89.
Maurice W. Graham was born in Atchison, Kan., in 1917. He was just 14 years old when he first hopped a freight to freedom. Although he served as a medical technician during World War II, Graham continuously returned to the vagabond lifestyle as a professional hobo. He stayed in hobo camps on and off from the late 1960s until 1980, and took on the nickname “Steam Train Maury.” When he wasn’t riding the rails, Graham worked as a cement mason in Toledo, Ohio.
Men have been sneaking onto freight trains since the Civil War. Known as hobos, they made a living doing odd jobs or working as field hands and miners. During the Great Depression, more than a million people rode the rails across the United States while searching for work. John Steinbeck, author of “The Grapes of Wrath,” called hobos “the last free men.” Graham described them as guys “who went camping and never came home.”
An informal group of hobos formed their own constabulary — Tourist Union Local 63 — in 1899. Officials in Britt, Iowa thought the idea of a hobo union was great fun and invited Local 63 to use their town for its annual convention. The union officers took the town up on its offer, and in 1900 held the first National Hobo Convention. By 1933, Britt had become known as “the hobo town,” where hobos were crowned as royalty and served free mulligan stew.
A founding member of the Hobo Foundation, an organization that preserves hobo history, Graham was crowned King of the Hobos five times (1973, 1975, 1976, 1978 and 1981), and helped establish the Hobo Museum in Britt. In 2004, he was dubbed the first “Grand Patriarch of the Hobos,” and bestowed the title: “Life King of the Hobos East of the Mississippi.”
Today, boxcars are sealed for security purposes and trespassers are prosecuted by the authorities. As such, few people continue to ride the rails free of charge. But fans of the hobo lifestyle flock to Britt each year to listen to stories about “the iron road.” Many of these tales were collected by Graham in the 1990 book, “Tales of the Iron Road: My Life as King of the Hobos.”
In his spare time, Graham cheered up patients at veterans’ hospitals, taught a wrestling class at the YMCA and played Santa Claus for 30 years at the Franklin Park Mall. He is survived by Wanda, his wife of 69 years, and his two daughters.