In an article in today’s Newsday on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, aka Lou Gehrig’s disease:

ALS destroys motor neurons and gradually leads to loss of speech and paralyzation.

Coining new words when there are perfectly good old ones is a time-honored tradition – it’s what got us normalcy, after all – but sometimes it’s just plain wrong.

Interestingly, the above is how the phrase appeared in the print edition of Newsday (and its Google cache), but the website has been updated to read:

ALS destroys motor neurons and gradually leads to loss of speech and leaves people paralyzed.

Which is correct and all, but leads one to wonder if Newsday’s post-layoff copy editors have just never heard of the word “paralysis.” Or maybe they’re being paid by the word.