Huge Paralysis Breakthrough

[PedroDaGr8]

For the first time, a surgery that actually bridged the gap in a fully severed spinal chord. The patient, a 38 yo Bulgarian male was paralyzed in a stabbing in 2010. The surgery used a nerve graft from the ankle to bridge the 8mm gap and olfactory nerve cells to help bridge the graft to the spinal chord. This is HUGE news, even if its still years away from being a regular treatment. There is a lot more work to go. That being said, for the first time ever, a person who was fully paralyzed for years is now able to walk (with braces, likely because of 4 years of atrophy) and has regained some feeling in his legs again.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-wp-blm-news-bc-paralyzed21-20141021-story.html

[Darrell KSR]

Outstanding news.

I represented a guy on unrelated matters that was involved in some parts of this. Invented some specific drug delivery device for spinal cord patients. He told me that patients would be walking soon. It was years ago, and I'm not sure if that met his timetable (or if he was involved, in any way, with this), but this news is incredibly good news.

Thanks for sharing the story.

[CitizenBBN]

Pretty impressive. Going to mean a lot to a lot of very deserving people when this becomes a more widespread treatment.

[suncat05]

This is great news. When this becomes a fairly regular procedure there will a lot less people confined to wheelchairs. There will be lots more freedom of movement available then.