... a dangerous condition involving blood pressure known as autonomic disreflexia--all of which Reeve would experience in the coming years. Even while at Kessler, Christopher Reeve began to use the international interest in his situation to increase public awareness about spinal cord injury and to raise money for research into a cure. A 20/20 interview with Barbara Walters drew huge ratings and many other television appearances would follow. Never a man to turn from a challenge, Reeve accepted invitations to appear at the Academy Awards in 1996, to host the Paralympics in Atlanta, and to speak at the Democratic Convention in August of that year. At such high-profile appearances Reeve faces risk of embarrassment if he cannot speak because his tracheostomy tube is slightly out of position or if his body suddenly spasms and jerks about uncontrollably (as it did just before the curtain went up at the Oscars). Despite enormous ...

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