Researchers at Cambridge University may be on to something with advances in spinal cord injuries. They injected 23 paralyzed dogs who had lost function in their hind legs with their own olfactory cells that had been grown in the lab. As a result, many of these dogs regained their ability to walk.
The cells regenerated the nerve fibers in the damaged portion of the spinal cord, however, it does not appear that this repair would occur over long distances. Fixing functions like hand movement and bladder control will prove to be more complicated.
The video below is very encouraging. As you will see, Jasper the dog had no voluntary movement in his back legs and had to be held up with a sling as he walked the treadmill in the beginning. But after six months he was able to move all his legs and walk without help.
This may be hopeful news for people who have spinal cord injuries.
A judge in Cleveland ordered a Shena Hardin to stand at an intersection wearing a sign that says "Only an idiot drives on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus." As you can guess, she was caught on camera driving on a sidewalk so that she wouldn't have to stop as a bus unloaded children.
She must wear the sign two days next week from 7:45-8:45AM. Here license was also suspended for 30 days and she had to pay $250 court costs.
Should a judge have the authority to order a disabled woman with the mental level of a 6-year old to terminate her pregnancy?
The woman became pregnant 13 weeks ago after wandering away from her group home. The father has not been identified and it's not known if their encounter was rape or consensual. The case is still under investigation, but Judge Egan Walker thinks it would be "illogical and contrary to law" to keep him from examining evidence to determine if the woman should be ordered to abort the baby.
The woman's Catholic adoptive parents feel that they should be the ones to make such a medical decision for her, as her legal guardians. They are against abortion and say that six couples are interested in adopting the baby.
As of now, there are no orders for the woman to have an abortion, but there are many eyes on this case.
What do you think? Who should make this call--a judge or the woman's parents?
Nickolas Coke, who was born with only a brain stem, defied the odds by living for three years. Ancephaly occurs in 1 in 10000 births and most these babies only live for a few days.
Nickolas' grandmother thinks he came down with a virus. He had trouble breathing and eventually passed away after 3 attempts to revive him. The family says that he didn't live on any special medical equipment, but only took medicines to keep him alive.
His grandmother says that Nickolas brought them lots of joy and she remembers him playing and laughing in the pumpkin patches recently.
"He was our hero because he showed the strength if I can do this
anything can be done. He will always be
remembered."
The bodies of Connor (age 4) and Brandon (age 2) Moore were found yesterday near each other in a swampy marsh after they were pulled from their mother's arms and swept away during Hurricane Sandy.
Glenda Moore at the scene where they found the bodies of her sons.
Glenda Moore was driving to a family member's house during the hurricane when her car was submerged in water. She freed her boys from the car and held on to a tree while holding on to her children at the same times. She then made her way up to a nearby house. She reports that the man refused to let her inside. She went to the back of the house and tried to break inside with a flower pot but to no avail. A wave of floodwaters then rose and took her children.
Glenda's sister says:
“They answered the door and said, ‘I don’t know you. I’m not going
to help you.....My sister’s like 5-foot-3, 130 pounds.
She looks like a little girl. She’s going to come to you and you’re
going to slam the door in her face and say, ‘I don’t know you, I can’t
help you’?’”
Her cousin, Nancy, reports that she went to more than one house.
‘I can’t believe the way she was treated by the people she went to for help,’ Nancy said.
"The first person she knocked on, she begged them and said: “Please call 911”."
"They told her: “I don’t know you” and closed the door. She tried another door but they turned the lights off."
Glenda spent the night on a doorstep until daybreak when she went to the police.
In this video report, they talk to the man who was apparently in the house she went to for help.
This is a really sad story. I can understand not opening your door if someone knocks, but if this man actually did look this woman with two small children in the face and say "I don't know you (go away)" in the midst of a raging hurricane, he is really heartless.
