A team of doctors who helped a paralysed man walk again are seeking new patients so they can establish their breakthrough was not a one-off.
Polish man Darek Fidyka, who was paralysed from the chest down after being stabbed in the back by his partner’s ex-husband in 2010, can now walk with the aid of a frame after doctors transplanted cells from his nasal cavity into his spinal cord.
“For the next stages of our research we’ll need patients who have suffered a spinal cord injury caused by a sharp object, like a knife, or a machete,” said Wlodzimierz Jarmundowicz, a neurosurgeon from Wroclaw, western Poland, who was part of the team that treated Mr Fidyka.
“The little light bulb at the end of the tunnel has gone on but we need to repeat the procedure on two or three patients and we’ll see,” Mr Jarmundowicz told a news conference in Wroclaw.
The doctors plan to set up a website in Polish and another in English to advertise for volunteers.
The technique, described as a breakthrough by a study in the journal Cell Transplantation, involved transplanting what are known as olfactory ensheathing cells into the patient’s spinal cord and constructing a “nerve bridge” between two stumps of the damaged spinal column.
The pioneering research was led by Geoffrey Raisman, a professor at University College London’s institute of neurology, who worked with surgeons at Wroclaw University Hospital.
Specialists caution surgery not a generic cure
However, specialists in the field have cautioned that success with one patient is not enough to conclude that the treatment could be of wider benefit.
In some cases patients see significant improvement in function purely through rehabilitation, and the passage of time, they said.
Mr Fidyka attended the news conference in a wheelchair, as feats of his recovered mobility were relayed by the doctors in video presentations.
Visibly surprised by the amount of attention his case was attracting, he apologised for his hoarse voice, which he said came from talking to journalists.
He recalled how in 2011, a year after he was stabbed, he made his first appointment to see Dr Pawel Tabakow, one of the team that later treated him.
“His hair stood on end; he didn’t expect a patient with such an injury,” Mr Fidyka said.
“Now I can move my left leg, I have more feeling in my right leg, I feel warmth and cold, different physiological and sexual functions are coming back. I could live in a flat on my own. With certain modifications, I can drive.
“There are peaks and troughs, but it’s all going in the right direction,” he said.
Reuters