Nose cells make paralyzed man walk, drive a car again

Polish surgeons used nerve-supporting cells from a 38-year-old man paralyzed from the waist down that made his broken tissue heal his spinal cord enough so that he can walk with the aid of a walker. And drive a car.

Darek Fidyka, a Bulgarian injured four years ago, is believed to be the first person in the world to recover from complete severing of the spinal nerves. Sensation has returned to his lower limbs.

The surgery was performed by a Polish team led by Dr. Pawel Tabakow, from Wroclaw Medical University, and involved transplanting olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) from the nose to the spinal cord.

OECs assist the repair of damaged nerves that transmit smell messages by opening up pathways for them to the olfactory bulbs in the forebrain.

Relocated to the spinal cord, they appear to enable the ends of severed nerve fibres to grow and join together – something that was previously thought to be impossible.

Don’t believe it? Click on http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/21/paralysed-darek-fidyka-pioneering-surgery