Below is my open letter to all spinal cord injury researchers who devote themselves to help us to walk again. I recognize their value with very much heart-felt gratitude. Step by step they are taking us to the days when we will walk again. I and all who suffer from this dreadful disability appreciate their tireless efforts.

Very Dear SCI Researcher;

Today I'm very bored. There's nowhere to go and nothing to do with my time because I'm just a quadreplegic,  locked in this room and " locked in a body" that doesn't function. Anyway, I decided to write you a letter and I hope this finds you in good spirits whoever you are and wherever you may be.

I know you from the scientific articles and news. You don't know me personally, of course, but we both know you are struggling hard to find a cure for my disability. Because you are working hard on my behalf I will count you as my friend. I believe that strangers are just friends waiting to happen anyway.

When I was a teenager and in good health, I thought about scientists and researchers and that the human race would diminish if they stopped helping people. I realized that those who give of themselves to help the human race most are not the politicians, not the rich, not even the religious leaders but only scientists and researchers. I have always highly respected and admired you and the things you do.

I remember that all my friends were fans of singers or sportsmen or actors but I was more admiring of scientists. The problem was that I could not find their cards or posters as easily as we found those of pop stars'. Thank God, my first poster was not of a pop star's but a poster of Einstein. But I still don't understand why they write E=mc˛ at the bottom of most of his posters. His name is Albert.  Anyway, I have another picture of Einstein playing the violin and there's no E=mc˛ on the picture.

I never asked myself why a kid feels a need for scientists at that age. All I know is that I need you a lot more now than I did in the past.

I need you because I'm sick of being in this bed and waiting without knowing what will happen to me and when. I need you because I'm still young now and I don't want to die in this bed.I need you because until today there was no cure for this kind of paralysis and millions of people have become paralyzed, lived paralyzed and died paralyzed. I need you and the reasons are really countless. I need you simply because you are the only one who will be able to help me reach my dreams.

I want to dream what I want to dream, I want to go where I want to go, I want to do what I want to do and I want to be what I want to be, because I have only one life and one chance to do all the things I want to do.

On Sundays I want to walk out onto the balcony with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. And you are the only persons who can make this little dream come true.

Since I became paralyzed, no girl dated me because you know it's not fun being with a paralyzed person and even dating requires a healthy body. Nobody knows how sorrowful it is to have a sentimental affection for a girl when you can't tell her that because you are paralyzed and have nothing to give her. My dear friend, I want to marry a wonderful girl and later cuddle my newly born baby girl when she holds my little finger in her little fist and know that I'm hooked for life. You'll do this for me, won't you? 

Have you ever followed your dreams? I didn't have the chance to do.

Last night I was thinking about myself before I fell asleep. Later the same thoughts unnecessarily reminded me of the fact that I'm just a quadreplegic, nothing else. I realized that every single thing in the room was made by using hands and feet and I thought without hands and feet none of the civilizations of the world could have been possible. Without hands, arms and legs one can create very limited things, sometimes almost nothing, for himself, for his beloved ones or for the society. When you're paralyzed, these limited things can come into existence only in the brain and can be expressed only in words. I'm really fed up making future sentences starting with "Someday I will...". Will I? Really? When one does not have the ability to carry his body to the world outside with the the things in his brain and if he does not have the ability of his hands to give a shape to the things in his brain, it's all to no avail my friend. It's all to no avail! I would just love to be back in my good old days and trying to make a living like everyone else. 

By the way, I saw one of your lab rats yesterday on a documentary on the National Geographic Channel, that black and white one. First they showed the rat when it was paralyzed; it could not use its hind limbs, it could only drag itself around with its forelimbs; it was so sad to see a rat like this. Then they showed you operating on the rat's spine, I saw only your hands. Then it was the rat again on the screen on all four limbs after the treatment; it can now WALK, RUN, LEAP, CLIMB... as if nothing had happened to it. It was extraordinarily wonderful. Great work! I wish I could have been in that rat's place. Will you do the same thing for me? Well, I'm a bit more complicated than the rat but I'm sure you can do it. PLEASE DO IT!

I believe you will win the Nobel prize someday. You deserve this and much more. You will receive from me and millions like me the love and devotion you so richly deserve for all your efforts on our behalf, which in my eyes is bigger than all kinds of prizes.

Talk to you later.

Yours truly.

Ali Karabulut