First-of-Its-Kind Treatment Gives Man Ability to Walk Again
First-of-Its-Kind Treatment Gives Man Ability to Walk Again – A medical team has for the first time given a man the ability to walk again after transplanting cells from his brain onto his severed spinal cord.
Alright, we’re officially in the future! A first-of-its-kind treatment performed by an English-Polish medical team used cells associated with smell to give a man the ability to walk again.
Darek Fidyka, seen in this BBC footage, had his spinal cord severed by a knife attack in 2010. But by transplanting olfactory ensheathing cells in the brain and nerve fibers from the ankle, surgeons were able to perform a bridge to repair the injury. It’s something which Professor Geoff Raisman, at University College of London’s Institute of Neurology, told BBC, “is more impressive than a man walking on the moon”.
Fidyka was, understandably, happy himself, telling the BBC that being able to walk again after two years is like being born again. The Times reports Fidyka can now get around with the help of a frame, drive a car solo, and now even hunts with his friends.
Part of the research was funded by the UK-based Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation. The organization’s founder, David Nicholls, has a son who is paralyzed. According to The Guardian, he plans to make the research available to other scientists around the world, working on cures for paralysis.
The Independent Report said, the English-Polish medical team now needs to raise about $16 million dollars to fund the same treatment for ten more patients in Poland to further verify the results.
The treatment was published in the medical journal, Cell Transplantation.
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