Free Republic

It is a decision no parent ever wants to make. But as the Rudd family watched their 43-year-old son lying paralysed and comatose on a life support machine, they came to a terrible conclusion. Recalling a conversation where Richard told them he wouldn't want to be trapped in a useless body, his relatives agreed it was time to let him go. Yet even as the Rudd family mentally prepared to say goodbye, his doctor made a startling discovery. Despite his devastating spinal injuries, Richard Rudd was still able to blink his eyes in response to simple questions.

Non Embryonic Stem Cell Treatment Allows Paralysed Brazilian To Walk, Talk Again RIO DE JANEIRO, November 23, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Brazilian scientists have successfully transplanted adult stem cells into a woman's brain, facilitating her recovery from a brain hemorrhage that left her paralysed and unable to talk. Maria da Graca Pomeceno, 54, had bone marrow stem cells taken from her pelvis and injected into her damaged brain. Local television broadcasts showed her walking up stairs and talking. Hans Fernando Dohmann, director of Rio's Pro-Cardiaco Hospital, said that hers was the first reported successful treatment of this condition, but that trials...

Scientists have used injections of human stem cells to heal spinal injuries in paralysed mice, allowing them to walk normally again. The research, which was funded by the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, suggests that stem cells could be used to repair spinal damage in people who have suffered damaging accidents or disease, although further studies, including safety tests, are needed before the treatment can go into human trials. Neuroscientist Aileen Anderson and her team at the Reeve-Irvine Research Centre at the University of California, Irvine, used stem cells taken from the neural tissue of aborted foetuses. When injected into the...

A PIONEERING treatment has allowed paralysed dogs to regain some movement. The results have raised hopes that the method will work in people too. So far, nine dogs paralysed in road accidents or by spinal disc injuries have been treated by veterinary surgeons Robin Franklin and Nick Jeffery of the University of Cambridge. Within a month, all regained the ability to make jerky movements in their hind legs, Jeffery told a meeting in Birmingham, UK, this week, although they are only slowly gaining the ability to support their own weight. Many different approaches to treating spinal injuries are being explored,...

VIENNA (AFP) - Demonstrators blocked key motorway links between Germany and Italy through the Austrian Alps for a third day in protest against the threat of pollution caused by new EU relaxations on truck traffic. Two motorways were paralysed with long tailbacks of vehicles through the Inntal Valley in western Tyrol and the Tauern between Salzburg and Upper Austria, a motoring association spokesman said. "Several hundred demonstrators blocked vehicles for kilometres in the Inntal near Innsbruck and in both directions of the Tauern tunnel," he said. Trucks were expected to be trapped in the Inntal until early Thursday because the...

Human cells used to make paralysed rats walk By Charles Arthur Technology Editor 03 July 2003 Cells from human embryos could be used to help some people with spinal injuries to walk again, successful work involving rats has indicated.Scientists from the University of California at Irvine college of medicine said that paralysed rats walked again after being injected with stem cells from "early-stage" human embryos. They hope that the breakthrough will prove to American policy makers that the use of human embryonic stem cells and therapeutic cloning - presently banned in the US - are justified.The team, led by Hans...