October 20, 2008

• Lend a hand…or two!

  On october 9th, 2008, a german man became the first person in the world to receive a DOUBLE ARM TRANSPLANT
  
  No, not like that. But close!
  
  The above gentleman, as reported by bbc news, located here, Suffered a farm equipment injury 6 years ago that left him without the use of his arms. I say without the use of, becuase it is rather hard to use arms that are not there
  
  In a two day operation, those mad scientists over in germany managed to attach two donor arms from a teenage car accident victim (dont drink and drive kids!) leaving our “hand”icapped gentleman with two brand new fancypants appendages that actually work to the degree of opening doors and flipping light switches!
  
  Now while this may not sound that impressive to you, please consider for a moment that the human nervous system is so ludicrously complicated, there is a specialty of medicine wholly designated to it (neurology and neurosurgery) both of which can require up to 7 YEARS of post graduate training to fully learn. I mean you really got to give these guys a hand.

  Sadly the surgery cost an arm and a leg, so right after he learned to use his new appendages, he had to give one back. Now he is half the man he used to be.

  …Okay I will stop there. But I do love my corny jokes, and the worse taste they are in the better. Seriously though, the accomplishments we are making in technology are astounding…the implications of this surgery are far reaching as amputees all over the world now potentially have the chance to recover lost limb function.

  • 1:09 am
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