Darek Fidyka, a Bulgarian who had been paralyzed from his chest down for almost two years due to a spinal cord injury, has been recovering feeling in his legs, reports said Tuesday. He is now able to walk with the help of a walking frame.
Fidyka, 40, was given a procedure that has never been tried before, during which olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) from his nasal cavity were implanted into the gap in his spinal cord which caused his paralysis. The OECs started slowly restoring nerve connections between the two sections of the gap.
Fidyka first received treatment two years ago, carried out by researchers and doctors at University London College and Wroclaw Medical University. He started feeling initial signs of recovery after three months, and is now able to walk outside of the rehabilitation center with his walking frame, BBC reported.
"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 in BBC One.
"What I have learned is that you must never give up but keep fighting, because some door will open in life," he added.
Indeed, the successful results following this new procedure has been a sign of hope for many who have relatives and loved ones enduring paralysis, such as David Nicholls, whose son has been paralyzed from his neck down due to an injury to his neck. Nicholls founded the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation (NSIF), which has been funding the research and treatment process.
"I promised Dan that I would not give up until a cure had been found. This news brings us closer than I could have imagined - it is an incredibly important first step," Nicholls said.
"I believe we have now opened the door to a treatment of spinal cord injury which will get patients out of wheelchairs. Our goal is to develop this first procedure to a point where it can be rolled out as a worldwide general approach," Professor Geoffrey Raisman, head of University College London's Institute of Neurology, told the Independent.
"We believe that this procedure is the breakthrough which, as it is further developed, will result in a historic change in the currently hopeless outlook for people disabled by spinal cord injury."
