Crazy Experimental Medical Procedures That Actually Worked
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A Tooth Implanted Into The Eye Restores Sight
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In what was a first-of-its kind operation, 60-year-old Sharron Thornton regained her sight when a leading cornea specialist implanted a tooth into her eye. It may sound like the stuff of nightmares, but it's actually an amazing medical advancement. The woman had been blind for nine years when the experimental procedure was carried out, with the tooth helping to treat a potentially life-threatening condition called Stevens Johnson syndrome that destroys cells.
The canine tooth was shaped and had a hole drilled into it so that a tiny lens could be placed inside. Then, the new eye structure was implanted in her shoulder for a few months so that it would bind to the lens correctly. After the structure was fully bonded, it was implanted in the center of her eye.
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Cutting The Body Completely In Half
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Hemicorporectomy is a type of radical surgery that has only been performed around 600 times throughout medical history. The infrequency of the technique is directly related to its severity. See, the procedure essentially involves doctors removing the bottom half of the human body from a person.
Everything below the waist, including the legs, genitals, rectum, urinary structure, and pelvis, is completely removed. While it is often successful, it is generally only done to stop aggressive cancers that have spread to the pelvic bones and spinal cord.
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Man Given An Extra Heart Due To Lung Complication
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San Diego resident Tyson Smith was in desperate need of a heart transplant, due to a progressive illness that caused his own heart to enlarge significantly. Unfortunately, a traditional heart transplant wasn’t viable because of his high blood pressure and the fact that his lungs were damaged in such a way that they would likely reject any new heart.
The problem was solved with a new type of surgery that involved joining the new heart onto the old one so that it wouldn’t be rejected by the body, and could also cope with the workload of pumping blood. Miraculously, the procedure was a complete success, adding an extra 10 years to his lifespan.
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Special Eyedrops That Provide Night Vision
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- Gordon Wrigley
- Wikimedia Commons
- CC BY 2.0
A group of biohackers known as Science for the Masses have taken it upon themselves to investigate and implement biometric enhancements to the human body. In 2015, they successfully carried out a medical procedure that allowed the trial participant to see in the dark much more effectively using a chemical normally used in cancer treatments.
They inserted the chlorin e6 chemical directly onto Gabriel Licina’s eyes and found that he was able to make out shapes and find objects in the dark at a far better rate than other test subjects. What makes this even more crazy is the fact that none of the people involved were doctors, but rather just a registered nurse and a person who had done some research on the Internet.
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Curing Rabies With A Chemically Induced Coma
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There is only one medically accepted way of treating someone who has been infected with rabies: injecting them with several doses of the rabies vaccine soon after the animal bite (before symptoms set in). This wasn’t possible with Jeanna Giese, however, as she didn’t receive any medical attention after receiving a small bite from a bat.
By the time she went to hospital, traditional treatment was no longer viable. Instead, her doctors decided to use a brand new experimental procedure that involved putting the 15 year old into a chemically induced coma and pumping her full of antiviral drugs. After six days, she was brought out of the coma. She was released from hospital 31 days later, making an almost complete recovery. Giese became the first person to recover from rabies without getting the vaccine.
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Wiping Out A Person’s Immune System To Treat MS
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A lot of advanced medical research is focused on treating and curing multiple sclerosis. One experimental procedure that has shown some promise is hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, although it is only available in certain countries due to its... unorthodox nature.
New Zealander Royce Brewer travelled to Russia in 2016 to go through the hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, which involved completely wiping out his immune system with chemotherapy and then implanting stem cells back into the body. The surgery was an apparent success, putting his MS into remission.
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An Implanted Chip Allows People To Move Paralyzed Limbs
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Although it might seem like the realm of science fiction, researchers around the world are working on new techniques to help those with different forms of paralysis walk again. Some of this research culminated in a type of chip, able to be inserted into the brain.
Ian Burkhart underwent this procedure in 2016 when medics at Ohio State University placed a chip in his brain connected to a special sleeve on his wrist. This allowed electrical signals be to sent to his hand when the chip intercepted the neurons sending the appropriate signals. Thus, Burkhart was able to move his hand.
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Removing Half A Brain To Prevent Seizures
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Jessie Hall was six years old when she was diagnosed with Rasmussen's encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain that leads to a variety of severe symptoms. The young girl would often experience seizures, lose the use of her left arm, speak in gibberish, and even lose her sight during her worst times.
After extensive testing and treatments, experts from Johns Hopkins eventually came to the conclusion that the only way to solve the problem was to perform a hemispherectomy, an insane sounding procedure that involves removing the entire right side of the brain. When done properly, the surgery leaves the patient's personality, memories, and motor skills intact. The surgery was a success and Jessie made a full recovery.
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Operating On A 22 Week Old Fetus In The Womb
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- Ravedave
- Wikimedia Commons
- CC BY-SA 2.5
One of the worst things that any incipient parents can discover is that their unborn child has a problem in utero. After all, it is incredibly difficult to operate on a fetus in the womb, and any surgery could also pose a significant threat to the mother.
This didn’t put off surgeons in Australia, though, who performed surgery on Leah Bowlen when her mother was just 22 weeks pregnant in order to save her feet from being amputated. Using a 2mm operating telescope and a laser, they were able to cut the amniotic bands constricting her limbs and successfully prevented them from suffering permanent damage.
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Saving A Hand By Grafting It Onto A Leg
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When a tractor hit 9-year-old Ming Li from China, it not only completely severed her hand but also damaged her arm so badly that doctors could not reattach her hand to the limb. Without any other options to keep the hand alive, they chose the drastic action of grafting it onto her own leg.
The drastic procedure worked and the hand was able to be reattached once the arm was fully healed. Surgeons postulate that Ming would regain full use of the hand with physiotherapy.
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Blasting The Spinal Cord With Electricity To Cure Paralysis
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Paralysis is one of the few remaining conditions that doctors have been unable to advance treatment for over the past few decades. This is because it is remarkably difficult to fix the nervous system or perform successful surgery on the spinal cord.
One crazy experimental procedure showed some promise in 2014. It utilized "spinal stimulation." Essentially, the patients have electrodes placed into their spinal cords and current is then passed through them. Combined with physical therapy and exercise, it allowed the paraplegics to regain voluntary movement in their feet and legs.
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Growing A New Finger On A Person’s Stomach
After sawing off one of his fingers by accident while working, Wang Yongjun was faced with the prospect of losing the digit permanently because of the severe damage he had caused. Luckily, the doctor at the hospital in the Liaong province of China had other ideas. He used a crazy type of experimental surgery that involved grafting what remained of the finger onto the patient's stomach, where it could heal and regrow over the course of several weeks.
Dr Huang Xuesong explained why they had chosen the weird medical procedure, saying: "We had to make a quick decision or he could have lost his finger. We decided to cultivate a new fingertip on his stomach."
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Replacing A Severed Thumb With A Big Toe
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The thumb is the most important digit that humans have, allowing us to pick up objects and use tools. So when James Byrne from Bristol, England cut off his left thumb while sawing wood, his job as paver was in jeopardy. Surgeons were unable to reattach the digit, as it was too badly damaged.
This prompted surgeon Umraz Khan to use an experimental procedure that involved amputating the big toe from Byrne’s left foot and transplanting it to his hand. The worker had to learn to rebalance when walking, but doctors were confident he would be able to fully adapt to his new "thumb" with extra surgery and physical therapy.
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