4 ms·

A paraplegic undergoes pioneering surgery

16 points by tokenadult 11y ago

ck2 11y ago
I was with this story until I read his desire is to get well enough to be able to kill things again. Find a more worthy patient, there have to be plenty out there. ps. He's not hunting for survival, he's hunting because he likes to kill things and why is a doctor needing a patient for pioneering surgery charging them $10,000 ?
- Raphmedia 11y ago
  From the article: “I don’t think shooting from the car is very humanitarian” This should be enough to let you know that this man likes to hunt and not to kill.
  - ck2 11y ago
    The man enjoys making things die by his own hands. He eagerly looks forward to being able to do it again. He doesn't get the full entertainment value in it doing it from a car.
    - dang 11y ago
      Please stop.
- trhway 11y ago
  >Find a more worthy patient while i share your sentiment toward people who like to kill, it seems to be a cornerstone of medical profession is to not differentiate patients on their "worthiness", and i think that principle is one of a few real achievements of our species. Wrt. the article itself - sound like a great stuff. As an engineer and an arm-chair surgeon, i wonder though why just surgically connecting the spinal cord back and injecting a ton of anti-inflammation doesn't work (anti-inflammation does seems to help a lot when administered immediately after the injury to prevent the scar tissue forming and to prevent the inflammation squeezing the cord ends and thus allows for the much better chances for the cord to repair naturally)
- abakker 11y ago
  Why would you put the desire to hunt even on the relevance scale for _any_ medical treatment?
tokenadult 11y ago
This story is very meaningful to me because my late dad had a slip and fall on ice in a public place in 2002 and spent the last six years of his life paralyzed from the chin down from a crack in one of his cervical vertebrae that bruised his spine. An immobilizing injury like that is financially devastating even for someone like my dad, who planned for retirement and supplemental retirement medical insurance carefully and who was eligible for Medicare (of course, like all older Americans) and Veterans Administration medical care. It stresses a whole family when a family member is immobile and helpless. I saw a lot of other patients (many much younger, often injured in motorcycle accidents) at the care facilities that treated my dad with the best available contemporary care, and all I can say is that there is a LOT of work to do to improve treatment of spinal cord injuries. The experiment reported in the article submitted here is very preliminary and may not work for many patients. It will be interesting to see if this treatment approach can be refined and become more generally useful, or if further clinical investigation and basic science research will lead to other approaches to treatment that are even better.

16 points by tokenadult 11y ago

ck2 11y ago

I was with this story until I read his desire is to get well enough to be able to kill things again. Find a more worthy patient, there have to be plenty out there. ps. He's not hunting for survival, he's hunting because he likes to kill things and why is a doctor needing a patient for pioneering surgery charging them $10,000 ?

Raphmedia 11y ago
From the article: “I don’t think shooting from the car is very humanitarian” This should be enough to let you know that this man likes to hunt and not to kill.
- ck2 11y ago
  The man enjoys making things die by his own hands. He eagerly looks forward to being able to do it again. He doesn't get the full entertainment value in it doing it from a car.
  - dang 11y ago
    Please stop.
trhway 11y ago
>Find a more worthy patient while i share your sentiment toward people who like to kill, it seems to be a cornerstone of medical profession is to not differentiate patients on their "worthiness", and i think that principle is one of a few real achievements of our species. Wrt. the article itself - sound like a great stuff. As an engineer and an arm-chair surgeon, i wonder though why just surgically connecting the spinal cord back and injecting a ton of anti-inflammation doesn't work (anti-inflammation does seems to help a lot when administered immediately after the injury to prevent the scar tissue forming and to prevent the inflammation squeezing the cord ends and thus allows for the much better chances for the cord to repair naturally)
abakker 11y ago
Why would you put the desire to hunt even on the relevance scale for _any_ medical treatment?

tokenadult 11y ago

This story is very meaningful to me because my late dad had a slip and fall on ice in a public place in 2002 and spent the last six years of his life paralyzed from the chin down from a crack in one of his cervical vertebrae that bruised his spine. An immobilizing injury like that is financially devastating even for someone like my dad, who planned for retirement and supplemental retirement medical insurance carefully and who was eligible for Medicare (of course, like all older Americans) and Veterans Administration medical care. It stresses a whole family when a family member is immobile and helpless. I saw a lot of other patients (many much younger, often injured in motorcycle accidents) at the care facilities that treated my dad with the best available contemporary care, and all I can say is that there is a LOT of work to do to improve treatment of spinal cord injuries. The experiment reported in the article submitted here is very preliminary and may not work for many patients. It will be interesting to see if this treatment approach can be refined and become more generally useful, or if further clinical investigation and basic science research will lead to other approaches to treatment that are even better.