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Spinal implants allow paralysed people to walk, swim and cycle again

economist.com

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Re: Spinal implants allow paralysed people to walk, swim and cycle again

#91

Post by paledot »

eerikkivistik wrote: post #20

I have a colleague who could benefit from this type of new treatment. Since HN is a wonderful place with a multitude of experts in various fields, I'll throw a question in the air: Who and how would I contact, if I wanted to know more about these kinds of clinical trials and participation?

As a sibling comment noted, the vast majority of "breakthroughs" are hot air and your discovery of a way to "fix" your colleague may not be received as warmly as you expect. I don't know anything about your colleague or your relationship with them, but I strongly advise careful consideration before broaching the subject. (In fact, I strongly advise against bringing it up at all. "I found a cure for you" is up there with "what's wrong with you" and "I'll just push your wheelchair without your consent" on the list of ways to really, really piss off someone with a disability.)

Re: Spinal implants allow paralysed people to walk, swim and cycle again

#92

Post by T-A »

ineedasername wrote: post #36

Growing up, this sort of thing was speculated about with almost the same level of "sci fi" around it as things like stopping aging, instant cures for new diseases, and video phones. Just another example of how I slowly ended up living in the future without fully realizing it. Now, where's my flying car and Rosie, my robot maid?

https://www.dw.com/en/slovakia-certifies-flying-car-as-airwo...

https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/19/22791267/alphabet-google...

Re: Spinal implants allow paralysed people to walk, swim and cycle again

#93

Post by crossroadsguy »

Excellent news. For someone working from chair and dealing with a lingering mild sensation kind of feeling (sometimes faint pain like) in the lower back any new development in the spine region gives hope for the future if things go wrong. (I’ve mild lower spine bulging that doctors say nothing to worry about though).

I would be ecstatic if there was a cure for occipital pain (other than cutting the lower occipital nerves; that too just based on mere guess; or having regular nerve blocker injections) and a clear way to properly diagnose and image the region.

Re: Spinal implants allow paralysed people to walk, swim and cycle again

#94

Post by ineedasername »

beaconstudios wrote: post #70
ineedasername wrote: post #36

Growing up, this sort of thing was speculated about with almost the same level of "sci fi" around it as things like stopping aging, instant cures for new diseases, and video phones. Just another example of how I slowly ended up living in the future without fully realizing it. Now, where's my flying car and Rosie, my robot maid?

Flying cars, despite being a symbol of a scifi future, are actually a pretty bad idea. Driving on wheels is much more energy efficient than flying, and without the risk of acting like a kinetic weapon if the battery cuts out. I'm all for innovation, but I do think it's easy to get the wrong end of the stick with scifi and focus on the aesthetic over the social conditions.

Yes, small aircraft already account for most of the unscheduled rapid disassembly of planes each year. I don't think that masses of flying cars would improve on that.

I don't really see a straight path to improving upon cars for arbitrary point-to-point transportation.

Re: Spinal implants allow paralysed people to walk, swim and cycle again

#95

Post by duckmysick »

eps wrote: post #62
jcun4128 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SAO Wonder if you use your mind vs. a display, then are the visuals as good as real life. Or maybe you feed the image and your mind upscales it.

What's "SAO"?

Sword Art Online. An anime about players trapped inside a virtual reality online game. As jcun4128 described, the in-universe headset is much more advanced than what we have now.

Re: Spinal implants allow paralysed people to walk, swim and cycle again

#96

Post by verisimi »

mattkrause wrote: post #52
verisimi wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

You may be happy to learn that a lot of recent stem cell work does not actually use foetal tissue. Instead, there are methods for reverting adult cells from a blood sample back into stem cells (IPSCs, or induced pluripotent stem cells). This is exciting for a number of reasons: not only does it sidestep ethical concerns, but it introduces the possibility of making stem cells--and thus, other cells--that precisely mat…

Ok - things change. It was an similar example of the point is that with articles like these we are being 'tenderised' into acceptance of the generally unacceptable. It is a type of manipulative engineering of consent. It is not a fair presentation of the issue.

The 'sales job' suggests there is a (degenerative) agenda already in play with a desired end.

Re: Spinal implants allow paralysed people to walk, swim and cycle again

#97

Post by animal531 »

tarboreus wrote: post #59
cjmcqueen wrote: post #37

As a partner of a person with a complete spinal cord injury, I appreciate these articles and the science being done by these researchers, it is truly a big and complex and worthwhile problem to solve. For most of us, I do want to suggest being careful when and how you mention research and articles like this to people in wheelchairs. Just be aware there are lots of different reasons why someone might be in a wheelchai…

I'm blind with a retinal disease and it's a similar dynamic. Not all breakthroughs will help a given person. Additionally, most breakthroughs seem to be some version of vaporware, and it might be 10 or 15 years, or never, for most people in that category to benefit. I go through phases of catching up on research, but mostly try not to think about it.

I used to read physorg and other publications and would get really excited by all the new discoveries. But then decades go by and you sadly never see most of them realize.

Re: Spinal implants allow paralysed people to walk, swim and cycle again

#98

Post by kspacewalk2 »

paledot wrote: post #87
kspacewalk2 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To your last point, it's worth pointing out that making your built environment more easily traversible and usable for people with accessibility needs will pretty much always make it more easily traversible and usable for everyone . It's hard to appreciate this until you visit a country where they haven't spent decades making sure their elevators and hallways are wide enough, there are no unnecessary stupid steps, the…

Canada is unexpectedly one of those countries. Accessibility here is a nightmare, especially in big cities. As another partner of a person with limited mobility, I always notice and appreciate the difference that 40 years of ADA has brought to construction in the US. (I'd take universal health care over improved building codes any day, but both would be nice.)

Indeed, Canada is a laggard in this area. I work on a university campus where they've gone beyond the bare minimum that's legislated, and it's quite a stark difference from the rest of the city. Another important part of that is sidewalk snow removal. Only within the last 5 years has the city slowly started doing this somewhat right on some streets, whereas campus sidewalks are always plowed and salted.

Re: Spinal implants allow paralysed people to walk, swim and cycle again

#99

Post by mattkrause »

verisimi wrote: post #96
mattkrause wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may be happy to learn that a lot of recent stem cell work does not actually use foetal tissue. Instead, there are methods for reverting adult cells from a blood sample back into stem cells (IPSCs, or induced pluripotent stem cells). This is exciting for a number of reasons: not only does it sidestep ethical concerns, but it introduces the possibility of making stem cells--and thus, other cells--that precisely mat…

Ok - things change. It was an similar example of the point is that with articles like these we are being 'tenderised' into acceptance of the generally unacceptable. It is a type of manipulative engineering of consent. It is not a fair presentation of the issue. The 'sales job' suggests there is a (degenerative) agenda already in play with a desired end.

I'm honestly baffled as to what might be the generally unacceptable or "degenerative" agenda here. They stuck needles into consenting volunteers' spines and injected current. I don't think there's like...a big conspiracy to convince people to get epidurals or something.

Re: Spinal implants allow paralysed people to walk, swim and cycle again

#100

Post by ddingus »

paledot wrote: post #88
Archelaos wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever I come across an article about walking robots for the military, I am asking myself: What about walking-chairs as a replacement for wheelchairs? Could that be a realistic solution to the access problematic? I am an absolute layperson regarding robotics. Can perhaps anybody with some background explain, what to expect here in the next few years?

No. My wife is paraplegic and we did in fact test a rudimentary exoskeleton at one point. The reason they don't work is because the mobility she misses the most is the ability to transport a cup of coffee from the coffee maker to her desk, or the ability to go for a jog. It's the little things that have the biggest impact, and no one is going to don an exoskeleton to wear around the house. Furthermore, the drive to o…

Anything more than a couple PSI over a couple hours comes with tissue damage risk.

That is not very much. People who are not limited in some way are very unlikely to appreciate those hard facts. I didn't, until some professional work brought me into awareness.

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