The "real" bionic man


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Chicago doctors have announced a major breakthrough that could change the lives of patients with stroke, spinal cord injury, amputation, and even ALS. Medical editor Mary Ann Childers reports that they've created a real bionic man.

It's taken 20 years of research, but an incredible team of researchers and visionaries at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago have found a way to let patients move an artificial arm as if it were a real limb, simply by thinking about making it move.

54-year-old Jesse Sullivan is the world's first real bionic man. He?s got the most sophisticated artificial arm ever designed. "This gives me a lot of hope,? he said. ?I was an independent kind of guy. I didn't ask anybody for anything. If I could do it, I did it."

Jesse was a high-powered lineman in Tennessee until he touched the wrong wire in 2000 and was burned so badly both arms had to be amputated at the shoulder. He was initially fitted with traditional prosthetics. ?The traditional prosthectics were great, there was nothing wrong with them,? he said. ?But I wanted better."

So he volunteered for a project that sounds like science fiction. Doctors at Chicago's Rehabilitation Insitute connected his remaining arm nerves to healthy muscles in his chest.

Dr. Todd Kuiken of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago said, ?His brain doesn't know it's hooked to this muscle. It thinks it's hooked to his hand muscle. And it's kind of like re-routing a telephone."

This re-wiring let's Jesse control his artificial arm by thinking. Just like everybody else.

Dr. Kuiken said, ?So now when Jess thinks, ?close hand,? the impulse is picked up by a transmitter and goes to his hand. He thinks ?close hand,? and it does."

It not only moves like a real arm, it has sensation. "He's the first guy in history who felt something with his artificial hand," Dr. Kuiken said.

Eventually tiny sensors in the fingertips will transmit signals to the muscles in his chest and to his brain. Jesse will feel texture and temperature. But the arm is already letting him do routine tasks like shaving, eating dinner, carrying groceries, and picking up a newspaper.

"It really lifts you up and gives you, it gives you hope that there is a future coming," Jesse said.

Jesse tried the arm for the first time for two weeks in March. This is only the second time he's ever used it.

It'll probably be a year before he can take it back home to Tennessee and much longer -- maybe five years, at the earliest -- before it could be available to others. The doctors are going to be outfitting a young female military veteran this summer.

Remember Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man on TV? The research and development of this prototype has already cost somewhere in that ballpark and before it becomes available for widespread use, it will cost a lot more. This research is going to be funded, in part, by a $5 million gift announced from the Searle Funds through the Chicago Community Trust.

Source: http://cbs2chicago.com/health/local_story_173165942.html

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If yo watch the video on the CBS link above, the news reporter states within five years or so they'll probably start having it retrofitted and designed proper use; which means the looks will probably evolve to something better. However it will cost a lot of money to have custom limb.

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Great news, my mother is a doc at Johns Hopkins in the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitaion Dept., i forwarded her the news. thanks (Y)

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That's crazy. I jsut saw an episode of "Modern Marvels" on the History channel that was looking into research in this exact field. It was looking at the power of brain waves. Very interesting and promising news.

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I am hoping you aren't being sarcastic, because that is amazing that he could shave with robot arms. I just picture them being all jerky and stuff... *shudder* But i guess he would be using an electric, but that is still amazing.

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I am hoping you aren't being sarcastic, because that is amazing that he could shave with robot arms. I just picture them being all jerky and stuff... *shudder* But i guess he would be using an electric, but that is still amazing.

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I said it certainly was a commendable achievement, and I wasn't being sarcastic.

I think I should have italicized the was and added a smiley or something for measure. My fault. :huh:

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