On February 12, 2017, Chris Barr said goodbye to his wife and headed off to the beach for some surfing. The next time his wife saw him he was in a hospital bed, sand still in his hair, his neck broken after falling from a wave. There, she was told that he would likely be paralysed permanently, and need mechanical assistance breathing.

Today Barr, 57, from the US, can not only breathe on his own, but walk and feed himself too. He attributes some of his recovery to an experimental treatment in which stem cells taken from fat in his stomach were injected into his spine.

The technique, described in a paper in the journal Nature Communications, has undergone its first stage of human trials

Originally posted here:
Paralysed surfer attributes recovery to stem cell treatment - The Times