A MAN paralysed from the waist down after his spinal cord was sliced in half in a stabbing attack is able to walk again after undergoing pioneering surgery.
The 38-year-old Bulgarian, who suffered his injury in 2010, is believed to be the first person in the world to recover from complete severing of the spinal nerves.
Darek Fidyka can now walk with a frame and has been able to resume an independent life. Sensation has returned to his lower limbs.
Surgeons used nerve-supporting cells from Darek's nose to provide pathways along which the broken tissue was able to grow.
This was the first time the procedure had been shown to work in a human.
Professor Geoffrey Raisman, whose team at University College London discovered the technique, said: "We believe this procedure is the breakthrough which, as developed further, will result in a change in the currently-hopeless outlook for people disabled by spinal-cord injury."
The research is funded by the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation and the UK Stem Cell Foundation.
A Polish team led by one of the world's top spinal repair experts, Dr Pawel Tabakow, from Wroclaw Medical University, performed the surgery.
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