Monday, November 16, 2009

Man Gets 'Bionic Butt'

A British man Ged Galvin, 55, whose bowel was damaged in a motorcycle crash has been fitted with a "bionic bottom."
Ged Galvin, 55, now presses a remote control to open his bowels and go to the bathroom.
Galvin was given just hours to live by doctors after he suffered massive internal injuries when a car pulled out in front of him while he was traveling 45 mph on his motorcycle in 2005.
After 13 weeks in the hospital and 13 operations Galvin defied the experts and recovered from his injuries, but the two operations to control his bowel movements failed.
He was fitted with a colostomy bag which doctors said he would have for life. But Galvin refused to accept the prognosis and sought out a specialist.
In 2007, Professor Norman Williams of the Royal London Hospital performed the unique operation in which muscle was cut from above Galvin's knee and pulled back to his groin, and then electrodes were attached to the nerves which are controlled by palm-sized remote.
"I thought that in these days of modern medicine surely there was something they could do. They'd mended everything else.” Galvin said. Why not this?
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