A paralyzed man is miraculously able to walk again after undergoing stem cell therapy. Chris Barr was paralyzed from the neck down after getting in an accident while surfing seven years ago.
Today, he is able to stand and walk on his own. He was the first-ever patient in a Mayo Clinic study where stem cells were collected from his own stomach fat, expanded in a laboratory to 100 million cells, and then injected into his lumbar spine. Five years from undergoing the therapy, he says he is gaining more independence and able to walk faster now.
"I never dreamed I would have a recovery like this," he told ABC News in an interview. "I can feed myself. I can walk around. I can do day-to-day independent activities."
Mayo Clinic showed the success of the stem cell treatment in a clinical trial that involved 10 patients, including Chris. In the trial, 7 of the 10 patients reported experiencing increased strength in muscle motor groups and increased sensation to pinpricks and light touch. The other three patients had no response to the therapy.
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"These findings give us hope for the future," Dr. Mohamad Bydon, a spinal cord researcher at the Mayo Clinic and the study's lead author, shared. "This trial shows us that stem cells are safe and potentially beneficial in the treatment of spinal cord injury. This can be a milestone in our field of neurosurgery, neuroscience, and of treating patients with spinal cord injury."
As for Chris, he's happy that the effort is being put in. "I'm just thrilled that there are people taking bold steps to try and do research to cure this," he said. "It's been a wild ride and it's not over yet."
