Severe spinal cord injury recovery times can be significantly shortened by using acetyl l-carnitine early after the injury. Damaged mitochondria can be resuscitated and begin making ATP by speeding the delivery of long chain fatty acids across the mitochondrial cell membrane, where they can be used for making cellular fuel.
Another mechanism to consider to resuscitate mitochondria is to also add near infrared light therapy at about 870 nm because this has been shown to stimulate cytochrome C oxidase and increase the production of ATP. When I read this article I forwarded an email to the authors of this publication...no response so far.