1. Window washer in coma after falling 47 Stories woke up on Christmas day
Alcides Moreno, 37, fell 47 stories from a New York skyscraper when a freak accident sent his window-washing platform plunging to the concrete pavement. The accident killed his brother, who was working on the same scaffolding platform, andleft Moreno is such a bad state that doctors couldn't risk moving him to an operating room. Instead, they operated on him in the emergency room, leaving him in a vegetative state fornearly three weeks. Finally, he showed signs of consciousness and spoke -- on Christmas day. Less than a month later, he wasdischarged with the expectation that he would walk again within a year's time.
Considering that the death rate from even afour-story fall is about 50%, Moreno's survival, thanks in part to some fortunate circumstances, is astounding.
2. Teenage model had her body held together by 11 rods
3. It was supposed to be a great day for 14-year-old D'Zhana Simmons, who received
a transplant to replace her enlarged heart. However, her dream turned into a nightmare when the new heart failed to function properly. Doctors had to remove thenew organ, but without another heart available and with D'Zhana weakened from the surgery, they had to come up with astopgap measure: two artificial pumps that kept the blood flowing in her body for close to four months. The feat was newsworthy partially because of D'Zhana's age and partially because when an artificial heart is used to sustain a patient, thepatient's own heart is usually left in the body. Finally, on October 29, D'Zhana received another heart transplant, and it was so successful that she had a kidney transplant the very next day.
4. Blind man got his sight back after having a tooth implanted into his eye
Martin Jones, a 42-year-old builder, was left blind after an accident at work more than a decade ago. But a remarkable operation - which implants part of his tooth in his eye - has pierced his world of darkness. The procedure, performed fewer than 50 times before in Britain, uses the segment of tooth as a holder for a new lens grafted from his skin.He lost his sight after a tub of white hot aluminium exploded in his face at work in a scrapyard. He suffered 37 per cent burns and had to wear a special body stocking for 23 hours a day. He also had his left eye removed. But surgeons were able to save the right eye, even though he was unable to see through it. At first specialists in Nottingham tried to save his sight using stemcells from a donor but the attempt failed.It was only when a revolutionary new operation was pioneered at the Sussex Eye Clinic in Brighton that he was given a chance to have his sight back. During the procedure, a minute section of a patient's tooth is removed, reshaped and chiselled through to grip the man-made lens which is then placed in its core. It is implanted under an eyelid where it becomes covered in tissue.The process requires a living tooth as an implant because doctors suggest there are chances the eye would reject a plastic equivalent. So a canine - which is the best option due toits shape and size - was taken out of Mr Jones' mouth. A patch of skin is then taken from the inside of the cheek and placed in the eye for two months, where it gradually acquires its own blood supply. The tooth segment is finally transplanted into the eye socket. The flap of grafted skin is then partially lifted from the eye and placed over its new sturdy base.Mr Jones, from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, was able to see for the first time his wife Gill, 50, whom he had married four years ago.
Alcides Moreno, 37, fell 47 stories from a New York skyscraper when a freak accident sent his window-washing platform plunging to the concrete pavement. The accident killed his brother, who was working on the same scaffolding platform, andleft Moreno is such a bad state that doctors couldn't risk moving him to an operating room. Instead, they operated on him in the emergency room, leaving him in a vegetative state fornearly three weeks. Finally, he showed signs of consciousness and spoke -- on Christmas day. Less than a month later, he wasdischarged with the expectation that he would walk again within a year's time.
Considering that the death rate from even afour-story fall is about 50%, Moreno's survival, thanks in part to some fortunate circumstances, is astounding.
2. Teenage model had her body held together by 11 rods
Katrina Burgess, 17, was told by doctors she may never walk again after surviving a 70mph car crash with a broken neck and back, and a catalogue of other injuries. But after being put back together with 11 metal rods and enough pins and screws to send an airport security detector into overdrive, Katrina was signed up by a modeling agency.Surgeons saved her life after her car left the M5 and crashed into a ditch as she travelled towards her home town of Weymouth, Dorset. She snapped her back, punctured both lungs and broke her neck, her pelvis, her left leg and several ribs. Surgeons at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton, Somerset,said that without surgery to help the bones to fuse, her spinal injuries in particular could deteriorate, risking death.Doctors inserted a rod from her hip to her knee in her left leg theday after she was admitted to hospital. It was secured inside with four titanium pins. The most risky operation came a week later. They sliced open her back and inserted six more horizontal rods up the length of her back to support her spine. Aweek after that, they inserted a titanium screw to the top of her spine to support the break in her fragile neck. Only a day after the last operation she was able to take her first steps.Astonishingly, five months on from the crash, the teenager has recovered to the point where she no longer even needs painkillers.
a transplant to replace her enlarged heart. However, her dream turned into a nightmare when the new heart failed to function properly. Doctors had to remove thenew organ, but without another heart available and with D'Zhana weakened from the surgery, they had to come up with astopgap measure: two artificial pumps that kept the blood flowing in her body for close to four months. The feat was newsworthy partially because of D'Zhana's age and partially because when an artificial heart is used to sustain a patient, thepatient's own heart is usually left in the body. Finally, on October 29, D'Zhana received another heart transplant, and it was so successful that she had a kidney transplant the very next day.
4. Blind man got his sight back after having a tooth implanted into his eye
Martin Jones, a 42-year-old builder, was left blind after an accident at work more than a decade ago. But a remarkable operation - which implants part of his tooth in his eye - has pierced his world of darkness. The procedure, performed fewer than 50 times before in Britain, uses the segment of tooth as a holder for a new lens grafted from his skin.He lost his sight after a tub of white hot aluminium exploded in his face at work in a scrapyard. He suffered 37 per cent burns and had to wear a special body stocking for 23 hours a day. He also had his left eye removed. But surgeons were able to save the right eye, even though he was unable to see through it. At first specialists in Nottingham tried to save his sight using stemcells from a donor but the attempt failed.It was only when a revolutionary new operation was pioneered at the Sussex Eye Clinic in Brighton that he was given a chance to have his sight back. During the procedure, a minute section of a patient's tooth is removed, reshaped and chiselled through to grip the man-made lens which is then placed in its core. It is implanted under an eyelid where it becomes covered in tissue.The process requires a living tooth as an implant because doctors suggest there are chances the eye would reject a plastic equivalent. So a canine - which is the best option due toits shape and size - was taken out of Mr Jones' mouth. A patch of skin is then taken from the inside of the cheek and placed in the eye for two months, where it gradually acquires its own blood supply. The tooth segment is finally transplanted into the eye socket. The flap of grafted skin is then partially lifted from the eye and placed over its new sturdy base.Mr Jones, from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, was able to see for the first time his wife Gill, 50, whom he had married four years ago.
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