Breakthrough spinal cord treatment gives hope for paraplegics

The case of Darek Fidyka has made headlines around the world. A pioneering new surgery has given him his legs back, in what scientist believe the first-ever instance of renewed nerve growth in a person with a spinal cord injury.

But the interesting thing is the surgery could easily have happened in New Zealand, and it could still. We have the technology, the expertise and we certainly have the candidates.

One such person is Caleb Harcus. He's classified as an incomplete quadriplegic, meaning that he still has some function in his arms, even though all his limbs are affected in some way. What's more is he is in the financial position to fund this research. So why isn't it happening?

Mr Harcus can't remember what he was thinking about as he walked to work on Guy Fawkes morning four years ago. It's unlikely he was thinking about the act of walking, the simple miracle of putting one foot in front of the other.

He probably wasn't thinking about the passing traffic, and he certainly never thought an out-of-control truck would take away his ability to walk forever.

"I woke up six weeks later and I looked at the ceiling and I thought, 'That's not the ceiling in my room. It's not the ceiling in the first-aid room at work. Where am I?' And then I reached up and I felt all these tubes coming out of my nose and my throat.

"I thought, 'Something's up here.' They [the doctors] did a standard line, saying, 'You'll never walk again.' And I understand it because false hope's a horrible thing, really. It really is."

Mr Harcus is classified as an incomplete quadriplegic, meaning he still has some function in his arms, even though all his limbs are affected in some way by the crash.

"The crucial word is incomplete," he says. "So I'm a C4. That was where my break was, but I'm incomplete, which means and this is what it comes down to we bashed that spinal cord, but we didn't bash it really, really hard. And part of that spinal cord is still sending messages."

Normally, Mr Harcus can push himself around in his wheelchair, but at the moment he's bedridden with a pressure sore, which is affecting his paralysed muscles.

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Breakthrough spinal cord treatment gives hope for paraplegics