Newly Approved Device To Help Paralyzed People Breath Without A Ventilator

I thought this was very cool. The FDA has just approved a new device, called the NeuRx DPS RA/4 (OK, the name's not too catchy). It is intended to help people with high-level spinal cord injuries with paralysis of the muscles used for breathing. People with paralyzed breathing muscles have to live attached to a bulky ventilator that breathes for them (think Christopher Reeve).

This device is an implantable electronic device that electrically stimulates the diaphragm to contract, allowing the user to inhale. It is intended for individuals to go up to four hours a day unhooked from their ventilators. The website claimed that half of the 50 patients in the trial achieved 100 % independence from their ventilators, and the rest could go without a ventilator for shorter periods each day.

It may not sound too impressive, but it's actually quite amazing. This implant does many things. First, the user doesn't have to lug around a big noisy ventilator with hoses coming out of it, which is awkward, attracts unwanted attention, and is a constant worry (will there be somewhere to plug it in before the battery runs out, etc). Second, unlike the ventilator, the implant lets a user take a full breath, which greatly reduces the risk of pneumonia-a huge health hazard and a common problem for quadruplegic individuals. Third, the implant can return a user's sense of taste and smell. Think back to the last time you had a cold and lost your sense of taste-this is a huge benefit as far as quality of life goes. Fourth, the device frees people up to enjoy lots of sports and recreation activities that they couldn't enjoy before. Clinical trial patients on the website state that they are now able to enjoy things like skydiving, bungee jumping, hiking, boating, and traveling that were previously out of their reach. Finally, the device helps users talk louder and breath more normally. (I think you can watch a video of one of the patients skydiving on this page!)

Right now the device is so new that only four medical centers in the US are implanting it. Hopefully everyone who can benefit from such a device will have access to it. The device is also undergoing trials for people with late stage ALS (aka Lou Gehrig's Disease)

Check out the website of the makers, Synapse Biomedical, right here.

Image: A skydiver and parachute in silhouette drift down past a setting sun in a pink sky.

Warning: Your Head May Explode From Cuteness

From The Daily Mail comes a story (with pictures!) of Hope, a very tiny and adorable dog born without her front legs. An orthotist made a mold of her torso and fitted it with two prosthetic wheeled limbs. When she grows, she will need a new prosthesis made. The story has some great photos of Hope, her custom prosthetic, and the molding process. As I said, you have been warned that your head may explode from adorable puppy pics. Quoth the reporter, "This tiny puppy may have been born without front legs but there's no way that is holding her back."

Image: Small fluffy white puppy missing her front limbs. She has a brace on the front part of her torso which is attached to two bent plastic limbs with wheels on the ends.

Odds and Ends, NY Times Redeems Itself

I missed lots of interesting stories over the weekend because I was in Las Vegas. My good friend JB was playing in a baseball tournament so we went to cheer him on and be tourists as well. I had a great time and at the baseball game I met one of the stars from one of my favorite tv shows, Grey's Anatomy. She was hilarious and awesome and she was nice enough to let me take a photo with her. Most actors are much less attractive in-person than on-screen, but she was even more beautiful in person!

First off, the NY Times has fairly dazzled me with an article about a US soldier with a severe brain injury. Many more soldiers in this war are surviving serious injuries because of better helmet and armor technology. This means there are more vets with disabilities than ever. The soldier profiled was in a Hum-vee that drove over an anti-tank mine. The brain "rattling" he received caused severe disability. He has very little independent movement and he cannot speak. He has what I have sometimes heard called "locked-in syndrome," someone of typical intelligence who cannot speak and communicates only with great difficulty.

I would highly recommend you read this entire article. The article talks about the soldier Shurvon, his injury, his progress in rehab, how he fits into his family, how his mother acts as his caregiver, and his options for communicating. Shurvon communicates only using his eyes. The author of the pieces writes a lot about how expressive Shurvon is with his eyes.

The article is also pretty amazing because the author exposes his own prejudices towards people with severe disabilities, and in doing so makes the reader confront their own beliefs. To me, it is brave to come out and admit that your preconceived notions were wrong and that you have changed them. Well done, Daniel Bergner! This seems like the type of story that can change the way people see people with disabilities:

I thought that there seemed little reason that Shurvon couldn’t someday earn a master’s degree. But at other moments the reasons appeared too immense ever to be overcome; the notion of college, let alone graduate school, seemed merely a soothing fantasy. And sometimes impossible to overcome, too, was the idea that Shurvon’s life might not be worth living; that I, in his place, would rather stop breathing, cease thinking, that I would prefer to die.

Whenever this idea took hold, I recalled a medical ethicist at R.I.C. telling me about studies showing that doctors and nurses tend to rate the quality of life of severely impaired patients to be far lower than the patients do themselves. The ethicist had spoken, then, about the ways that a life acquires meaning.

Next up, this month's "Paddler" magazine has an article about a kayaker who is a paraplegic. A kayaker buddy sent it to me. I'll give you a quote from the story. His raft guide is telling him that he will be able to handle an inflatable kayak on the river, despite his poor balance:

“Trust me,” he winked.

I asked him if he’d ever taught a paraplegic to whitewater kayak and he said he’d never had the opportunity. This was all I needed to hear.

I didn’t demo an inflatable kayak to ensure that I, a paraplegic, could safely paddle. I just bought one.

Weighing in on the Oscar Pistorius Olympics debate is bioethicist Art Caplan, and Paralympian/marathoner (and fellow Stanford alum!) Cheri Blauwet. They have different backgrounds and they both make very interesting points that you won't have heard already in the news. Cheri writes,

I feel that we are being extremely short-sighted to simply say "well...he doesn't have anyone to compete against." With the right resources and investment into grassroots development, we could have hundreds of talented athletes ready by the Paralympics in London 2012.

Medical tech blog medGadget reports on a new device to help people with severe visual impairment see better. The "Sightmate" helps users use the vision that they do have. It also makes you look awesome like Geordi La Forge.

Image: Levar Burton, playing the Star Trek character Geordi La Forge. A youngish handsome black man in a black and yellow uniform shirt with narrow wrap-around futuristic glasses.

"When can I get my cybernetic transformation underway?"

A biology researcher at the sci-fi blog io9 tells us all about cutting edge and future technology that will help people with disabilities. It's a nice overview with lots of good links. Check it out!
I was feeling left out of the cyborg revolution until I remembered that I became a cyborg child at the tender age of 3. My cyborg parts, although tiny, greatly reduced the frequency of chronic ear infections, ensuring that I could hear my teachers most of the time while I was in school, thus making me a more successful student! Alas, my artificial parts fell out sometime later, leaving scars on my tympanic membranes (eardrums!). As technology becomes more advanced and people live longer, more and more of us will be joining the mighty cybernetic army. What cyborg parts do you have?

Image: Luke Skywalker's artificial hand, with its access hatch open.