Lifelines

Medical technology continues to improve and help people recover from disease and injury.

When Larry Williams of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania crashed into a tree while riding a bike in 2024, his spinal cord was damaged and the injury limited his leg movements.

Upon qualifying to use an experimental drug — NVG-291 —for spinal cord injuries, Williams received a daily dose of the injectable peptide, followed by one hour of physical therapy, including hand exercises and walking with a harness on a flat track or treadmill, Fox News reported.

After three months of getting an NVG-291 shot beginning in April 2024, he started regaining his ability to walk. Since the end of the trial, Williams has continued to improve his ability to walk and can even swim laps in the pool, according to Fox News.

Meanwhile, a 71-year-old Chinese man suffering from cirrhosis and a tumor in the liver was given an alternative organ by doctors at the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhul Medical University in China in May 2024. The history and result of the transplantation case was reported in the Journal of Hepatology on 9 October.

The intention of the experimental treatment was to give the patient’s liver time to regenerate, said Dr. Beicheng Sun, president of the hospital and a co-author of the published study, CNN reports.

The genetically modified liver transplanted from a cloned pig initially functioned normally in the patient. On the 25th and succeeding days, however, the transplanted liver began malfunctioning and was removed by Day 38.

The patient’s own liver functioned well for the next 97 days. He then developed upper gastrointestinal bleeding and died 171 days after the transplant procedure, according to CNN.