Pick Up Your Bike And Ride

A paralysed man’s spinal cord was treated using cells taken from his nose. He can now ride an adapted tricycle.

16:46 08 March 2016

Darek Fidyka was paralysed from chest down after he was attacked with a knife in 2010. Following his surgery in 2012, where cells taken from his nose were used to repair his spinal cord, he can now ride an adapted tricycle.

 

He said: "I can tell that sensation is coming back and I am getting stronger. A year ago I would not have been able to ride a tricycle. Now I can feel each muscle and each press of the foot on the pedals."

 

His remarkable story and the 40-year-old research programme involving scientists in Britain and Poland was featured in BBC’s Panorama.

 

The head of the project, surgeon Dr Pawel Tabakow said: "If we can bridge the gap between two spinal cord stumps then there will be no doubt that our technique works and this will be historic - if we succeed we will have found a cure for paralysis.

 

"Then we will be able to help other patients with the most common type of injury, caused by a crush or compression."

 

Meanwhile, Prof Geoff Raisman, chair of neural regeneration at University College London (UCL), said: "Darek's latest progress demonstrates the extraordinary power of (neuro) plasticity. But it depends on the patient's own efforts. It is like a baby learning to walk. We cannot teach it how. The progress comes from inside."