Apparently there has been a breakthrough in the world of spinal injury. A man paralysed from the waist down is now able to stand up all by himself, albeit in the standing frame with quite a few people supporting him. With the aid of a pacemaker device implanted in his spine he is able to wiggle his toes, move his ankles and bend his legs.
Now I know I'm going to sound pessimistic but I just don't see what all the fuss is about. They admitted on the news that this is a very fit individual and he is the only one that they have managed to achieve this breakthrough with. He was able to stand, apparently take a few steps on the treadmill, but that's really about all he is able to do. I've seen these things before, there was a woman in the UK a few years ago that was able to use a similar setup to peddle a cycle using her legs, she was also able to stand up. Just being able to stand up and move your legs doesn't give you independent, in fact, I can't really see much benefits of going to all this trouble if all you are able to do at the end of the day is stand up by your self. It may be exciting to begin with but I'm sure that as soon as you have a reality check you realise that maybe this is just another case of making a mountain out of a mole hill.

A breakthrough in my books is paralysed people getting feeling back, being able to move fingers that haven't worked for years, getting their bodily functions back, maybe even being able to have a normal sexual relationship. How many millions of dollars were poured into this project? I'm amazed that the Christopher Reeve organisation funded this, I would have thought that the money would have best been put towards research into stem cells, after all this is probably what is going to eventually help cure spinal injury properly, not the use of a box of electrics.

I'm afraid until they come up with a way of mending a broken spinal cord then they can keep all their electrodes, I'm really not interested, I would rather wait for a proper cure, whether that will be in my lifetime, I wouldn't like to bet my life on it.