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Modern-day grave robbers in Texas have seized unclaimed bodies belonging to veterans and sold their limbs for profit without the consent or knowledge from their grieving family members. Victor Carl Honey, 58, a dedicated Army veteran, who struggled with mental illness, died in September 2022 of heart failure. Honey was among the 2,350 people whose remains were sent to the body donation program at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort-Worth. However, a month after his death, the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Officer deemed Honey's body 'unclaimed' after they said phones for relatives were disconnected even though...

A scavenging immune system cell that helps limbs regrow in salamanders brings hope that humans will one day be able to mimic the animal's amazing regenerative powers, say Australian researchers. The findings by Dr James Godwin, of the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute at Monash University, and colleagues, are published in today's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Salamanders (axolotls) are unique amongst vertebrates in being able to repair their hearts, tails, spinal cord and brain, and even regrow whole limbs during adult life, says Godwin. He sees their "perfect regeneration" as a holy grail. "We're trying to...

A powder nick-named "Pixie Dust" is being used to save the limbs of war heroes who have been wounded in Afghanistan. Surgeons have already used the dust to save several soldiers so badly mutilated that they were at risk of amputation. Made from pig bladders it has the ability to help the human body grow new tissue to replace large areas of a leg or arm destroyed by blast damage.

HUNDREDS of soldiers who have had arms and legs blown off by the Taliban may find that cash-strapped hospitals cannot afford to fix or replace sophisticated artificial limbs, campaigners warned last night. Since 2006, members of the Armed Forces injured in bomb blasts while serving in Afghanistan and Iraq have been provided with top-range prosthetics by the Ministry of Defence. When they leave the Army, however, their care is passed on to the NHS in what critics described as a postcode lottery for funds. One campaigner said: "The way things are going, ­soldiers risk walking into a hospital with a...

Close window Published online: 28 February 2007; | doi:10.1038/news070226-8 Electric switch could turn on limb regenerationTadpoles use a proton pump to direct tissue regrowth.Heidi Ledford Tadpoles: chop off their tails and they grow back. NHPA Tadpoles can achieve something that humans may only dream of: pull off a tadpole's thick tail or a tiny developing leg, and it'll grow right back — spinal cord, muscles, blood vessels and all. Now researchers have discovered the key regulator of the electrical signal that convinces Xenopus pollywogs to regenerate amputated tails. The results, reported this week in Development, give some researchers hope...

An Iraqi boy who lost both arms in the Gulf War has thanked the British and Kuwaiti people for his new prosthetic limbs. Ali Abbas said his only wish is to have his family with him as he goes through his rehabilitation. But the 13-year-old's parents were killed in the bombing raid during the war in Iraq - the same raid in which he lost his arms. He made the comments at a press conference before his first appointment at the hospital rehabilitation centre where he is expected to be fitted with £20,000 prosthetic arms. Ali has been accompanied by...

<p>Tim Devor, 57, tries on a prosthesis with the help of Eric O'Guinn Tuesday at Advanced bio-mechanics in Auburn. Medi-Cal would not cover such devices for many users under proposed cuts.</p> <p>A year ago, doctors amputated the bottom half of Joe Svogar's right leg.</p>