Quadriplegia

Quadriplegia is caused by damage to the spinal cord at a high level (e.g. cervical spine) or the brain. The injury causes the victim to lose either total or partial use of the arms and legs. The condition is also termed tetraplegia; both terms mean "paralysis of four limbs".

Known quadriplegics

The following people are, or were, afflicted with quadriplegia:

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• Ed Roberts First quadriplegic to attend the University of California Berkeley and one of the founders of the disability rights movement.
• John Callahan - cartoonist, who draws with a pen held in his mouth
• Vic Chesnutt - singer/songwriter
• Chuck Close - American painter
• Brooke Ellison- First Quadriplegic to Graduate from Harvard university
• Steven Fletcher - Canadian Member of Parliament, paralysed in an auto accident
• Stephen Hawking - physicist, due to motor neurone disease
• Curtis Mayfield - soul singer-songwriter, paralyzed in stage accident in 1990.
• Christopher Reeve - actor, lost mobility due to a horse-riding accident
• Sheikh Ahmed Yassin - leader of Hamas
• Darryl Stingley - American Football Player, Paralyzed in a 1978 exhibition game
• Sam Schmidt, Indycar racing driver, paralysed in 2000 testing crash
• Ramon Sampedro - Spanish fisherman, whose struggle for the right to die was dramatized in the film Mar Adentro
• Sir Frank Williams, Formula One team owner, injured in 1986 road accident.

Fictional

• Lincoln Rhyme - forensic expert featured in books by Jeffery Deaver.
• Joe Swanson - neighbor of Peter Griffin on Family Guy