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My daughter is five years old. She’s smart and adorable and can really turn on the charm. We went on vacation and she asked whole families “what’s your name” an
by wincy 3y ago
My daughter is five years old. She’s smart and adorable and can really turn on the charm. We went on vacation and she asked whole families “what’s your name” and introduced herself. Unfortunately she had the bad fortune of being born with the bottom of her spinal cord outside of her body.
She can’t walk, and she can’t control her bowels and bladder. She has a port in her skull, a brain shunt, that moves the cerebrospinal fluid into her belly which is extremely important for her continued wellbeing.
Her prognosis at this point is she should be able to live into her sixties or seventies with modern medical technology. But with modern technology she’ll never be able to walk.
I’m really hopeful that one day Neuralink will let my child walk. Things like this give me hope when I feel depressed about her quality of life or how she’ll be treated as an adult.
- caycep 3y agoWhy wait? There are brain-machine interface trials already underway w/ BRAINGATE and other university consortiums
- dpflan 3y agoThank you for sharing this. I believe there is more research into BCI and motor-control, for example this project: BrainGate (https://www.braingate.org/ https://www.braingate.org/). Whatever becomes commercialized will be interesting, but the field is progressing.
- wincy 3y agoThanks for sharing. I'll definitely keep an eye on it. I think due to risks risk now (or trying to have the biggest impact) things are being focused on those with cervical spine injuries whereas hers is in the lumbar section.
- spaceman_2020 3y agoThank you for sharing this. Too many stories about this tech get flooded with dommer comments.