A young paralyzed man just walked again after having an electrode implanted in his back.
Doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota have helped a paralyzed man walk 100 yards with the aid of a walker after implanting a remote-controlled electrode in his back.
Jered Chinnock, 29, was paralyzed five years ago after a devastating snowmobile accident left him with no movement or sensation below his mid-back. But after 43 weeks of intense rehab, and the help of the electrode, he was able to walk again.
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic implanted a battery in his abdomen to power the spinal-nerve stimulating electrode.
If the electrode is turned off or loses power, Chinnock can no longer stand.
“The walking side of it isn’t something where I just leave my wheelchair behind and away I go,” Chinnock, of Tomah, Wisconsin, told The Associated Press. But, “there is the hopeful side of, maybe I’ll gain that — where I can leave the wheelchair behind, even if it is to walk to the refrigerator.”
After 25 weeks of therapy Chinnock was able to take his first steps without a harness and since, he has walked over 100 yards and done so continuously for as long as 16 minutes.
“The reason why this is important is because the patient’s own mind, thought, was able to drive movement in his legs,” Dr Kendall Lee, who co-led the Mayo Clinic team, told The Independent. “Just as important is that we were able to get him to stand independently and take his own steps.”
While the study's initial results are promising, researchers need to dig deeper to uncover the specific reasons for their success.
“Now I think the real challenge starts, and that's understanding how this happened, why it happened, and which patients will respond,” said co-principal investigator Dr Kristin Zhao, director of the Mayo Clinic's Assistive and Restorative Technology Laboratory.
Researchers theorize that the electrical currents awaken nerve circuits beneath the injury which are droment, but living. The electric currents, paired with rigorous rehab, enable the nerve circuits to receive simple commands from the brain.
“To be able to move my legs and even to stand, it means a lot,” Chinnock told The Huffington Post. “That there’s hope for not only me, but other people.”




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An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
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Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.