After being paralyzed from the chest down during a 2010 knife attack, Darek Fidyka is walking again, thanks to a groundbreaking new cell-transplant therapy.
The treatment was pioneered by British doctors and carried out by surgeons in Poland.
It involved taking cells from Fidyka’s nasal cavity and injecting them into the gap of his damaged spinal cord. These transplanted nerve fibers are constantly regenerating and researchers hoped they would stimulate repair and re-growth.
The result is astounding.
Professor Geoff Raisman, chair of neural regeneration at University College London’s Institute of Neurology, led the U.K. research team.
He says the success of this treatment is “more impressive than a man walking on the moon.”
Fidyka is now walking with the help of a frame, but he says he’s able to feel movement and sensation slowly returning to his lower body.
“When you can’t feel almost half your body, you are helpless. But when it starts coming back it’s like you were born again,” Fidyka said.
Details of the new treatment are published in the journal Cell Transplantation. Researchers say their goal is to develop this procedure to a point where it can be rolled out worldwide.
