Posted on 06/04/2009 10:08:20 PM PDT by Schnucki
A stroke victim who has been paralysed for more than two decades can walk again after being injected with Botox.
Russell McPhee was a healthy meat worker who played football, cricket and basketball when, at the age of 26, he collapsed suddenly at work. When he woke in hospital he was told he had suffered a stroke and would never walk again.
“I felt my life had ended,” he said. “I lost my job, my wife left me, I ended up with nothing.”
Today, Mr McPhee, 49, of Gippsland in Victoria, can walk almost unaided for up to 20 metres and can cover 100 metres with a walking frame. “I thought I would die in my wheelchair,” he said.
“My life has started all over again. I have seen people cry when they realise I’m standing beside my chair. Tough men, blokes I went to school with and played sport with, weep when they see me.”
His rapid improvement came after treatment with Botox, or botulinum toxin injections at the St John of God Nepean Rehabilitation Hospital in Frankston, Victoria.
Only one month after his first injection, he was able to stand up and walk a few yards with a helper on either side. Now he can walk the length of a room with only a guiding hand on his arm.
Botox is an accepted treatment for the type of paralysis commonly associated with strokes. It was used to treat muscle spasm years before it was adopted for cosmetic use.
Patients usually show the best effects if they are treated soon after a stroke. Such a dramatic improvement after so long is almost unheard of.
Nathan Johns, Mr McPhee’s doctor, said that Botox on its own would not have worked without Mr McPhee’s extraordinary strength of will.
“Usually giving a
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Nice to know Botox can actually do someone some practical good and isn’t just a vanity thing for Hollywierd starlets and San Fran Nan.
some people develop antibodies to botox and then what?
my dtr takes Botox of her dystonia...it really helps...but its a lifelong thing every 3 months with many needles and quite expensive....luckily she’s got the best insurance available...Medicaid....
a healthy meat worker?
GAHH! I just got a visual of what Pelosi would look like then.
You will have a high position in the Obama administration’s national health care system. No expensive treatments for those who can no longer contribute to society.
God bless them.
Used for cosmetic reasons, the effects of Botox is indeed temporary. It dissipates over time. Here the Botox is being used to revitalize the muscle. Once revitalized, the muscle may remain so once it is exercised regularly. It mentioned the muscle had atrophied or become more solid than normal, but Botox caused it to soften, become more like the condition of our normal muscles.
Are you certain that it’s effect on the muscle is temporary, or were you thinking it’s activity here was the same as the cosmetic activity?
I don’t believe that it is, and I’m curious if you know something I don’t.
It kills by paralyzing muscles so I suspect that giving tiny amounts results in the body trying to reset the chemical balance and therefore producing the necessary chemicals needed for the muscles to move again.
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