Paralysed man walks after spinal research breakthrough

A PARALYSED man can walk again after receiving revolutionary treatment which one of the British scientists responsible hailed as a breakthrough “more impressive than a man walking on the Moon” — although others urged caution.

Darek Fidyka was paralysed from the chest down, but can now walk using a frame after nerve cells from his nose were transplanted into his severed spinal column in Poland, according to research published Tuesday in the journal Cell Transplantation.

“When there’s nothing, you can’t feel almost half of your body. You’re helpless, lost,” the patient, who is now recovering at the Akron Neuro-Rehabilitation Centre in Wroclaw, told the BBC’s Panorama program, who filmed his remarkable recovery.

“When it (the feeling) begins to come back, you feel you’ve started your life all over again, as if you are reborn,” said the 40-year-old Polish man, whose injuries were caused by a knife attack in 2010.

“It’s an incredible feeling, difficult to describe,” he added. Olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs), which form part of the sense of smell, were used in the treatment as they are pathway cells that enable nearby nerve fibres to be regenerated.

Read more @ http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/paralysed-man-walks-after-spinal-research-breakthrough/story-fneuz9ev-1227098183845

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us."  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~