Man's Severed Finger Grows Back (part3 of 3)

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continued from part 2


Human Tissue Regeneration – Junk Science or a Novel Prize Breakthrough?


Another critic of Spievack’s story said that the claims were merely “junk science”. Professor Simon Kay, a leading plastic surgeon and professor of hand surgery at the University of Leeds had dismissed the claims of pixie dust causing finger re-growth. Kay studied the before and after photos of Spievack’s finger injury and said that the injury in the first place did not look serious. To his observations, it was an ordinary fingertip injury with unremarkable healing. He added that all wounds go through a repair process and this is what might have happened to Spievack’s. Because there is a lack of clinical evidences to support the claims of the Spievack brothers and Badylack, Kay had called their story as “absurd and over-egged in the extreme”.

Despite these criticisms, the case of tissue regeneration has reached the US Army’s interest and they are not automatically dismissing this possibility. In fact, the US Army is presently pursuing this line of research and is investing millions of dollars on it. Just recently a wounded American soldier by the name of Harris underwent a history-making procedure that could help him re-grow a finger that he had lost during a bomb attack in Baghdad, Iraq. This surgery is part of a $250 million dollar research pursued by the Pentagon and other national top medical facilities like the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Steven Wolf, the lead research surgeon of Brook Army Medical Center, stated that although the technique of using this collagen dust in regenerating tissues seems to be science fiction, it also appears to be incredibly promising. Wolf further said that if they could pull it off with Harris’ surgery and growing back missing body parts, the next step they would probably do is growing back body organs such as the pancreas and the heart. With a final comment, the surgeon added that in the future, this science fiction discovery may not only benefit the military but also the civilians.



Written by: Guest Writer

Related stories:
Man's Severed Finger Grows Back (part1 of 2)
Man's Severed Finger Grows Back (part2 of 3)


References:
The amazing 'pixie dust'...
Regrown finger is 'junk science'
Salamander-inspired therapy may aid injured vets


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