By David Butler
'Superman' actor Christopher Reeve died Sunday surrounded by family due to complications with his paralysis. He was 52.
Reeve''s publicist told the Associated Press he went into cardiac arrest Saturday while at his Pound Ridge home in New York, then fell into a coma and died at the hospital. In the past week Reeve developed an infection from a pressure wound, a complication for people living with paralysis.
Dana Reeve told the Associated Press she is thankful to her husband''s personal staff of nurses and aides, 'as well as the millions of fans from around the world.'
Christopher Reeve was most well known for his title role in 'Superman' in 1978.
'Look, I''ve flown, I''ve become evil, stopped and turned the world backward, I''ve faced my peers, I''ve befriended children and small animals and I''ve rescued cats from trees,' Reeves told the Los Angeles Times in 1983. 'What else is there left for Superman to do that hasn''t been done.'
Reeve continued to live his life as a hero even after he broke his neck in May 1995 when he was thrown from a horse during an equestrian competition.
Reeve lobbied Congress for better insurance protection against catastrophic injury and became the most recognizable spokesperson for spinal cord research -- all from his wheelchair.
Dr. John McDonald, the director of the Spinal Cord Injury Program at Washington University, who treated Reeve, called him 'one of the most intense individuals I''ve ever met in my life.'
'Before him there was really no hope,' he told the Associated Press. 'If you had a spinal cord injury like his there was not much that could be done, but he''s changed all that. He''s demonstrated that there is hope and that there are things that can be done.'
Plans for a funeral have not been announced.