Seven years ago, Chris Barrs life changed forever.
While surfing, he fell and severely injured his back.
The avid surfer was catching waves at a local beach until something went terribly wrong.
One wave was particularly dangerous and threw Chris off the board.
At the hospital, Chris learned about his life altering diagnosis he was paralyzed from the neck down.
I never dreamed I would have a recovery like this, Chris shared his delight.
I can feed myself.
I can walk around.
I can do day-to-day independent activities.
After that, the cells were injected into Chris lumbar spine.
Each patient moved at least one level on the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) Impairment Scale.
The scale has five levels detailing a patients ability to function.
The other three patients, sadly, showed no improvement but they did not get worse.
They all had their stem cells harvested from the stomach.
Patient 1, Chris, had the most remarkable recovery of them all.
At the beginning of thestudy, Chris was on a ventilator, completely immobile.
Besides stem cell treatment, Chris was doing hard work with his physiotherapist.
The earliest we treated anyone was seven months after their injury and the latest was 22 months.
The researchers wanted to give the body time to try and recover on its own.
Patients are always looking for a cure.
As for Chris, he is delighted that he was able to be a part of this groundbreaking study.
Im just thrilled that there are people taking bold steps to try and do research to cure this.
Its been a wild ride and its not over yet.
What do you think of this?
Do you think stem cell therapy is the future or does this sound like science fiction to you?
Check out the results:
