Pioneering treatment was 'last chance to walk again'

Patient Darek Fidyka (left) at press conference, Wednesday: photo: PAP/Maciej Kulczynski

Fidyka, who had been paralysed from the chest down after being repeatedly stabbed in 2010 by the jealous ex-husband of his partner, thought he would never walk again, he told journalists at a press conference at the Akron Neuro-Rehabilitation Centre in Wroclaw.

“Doctors gave me no chance of a recovery. So when I first visited Dr Tabakow, my hair stood on end,” he recalled on Wednesday.

Professor Włodzimierz Jarmundowicz, head of the Wroclaw clinic, said it took many years for the theory to bear fruit.

“This scientific success that we have achieved has a very long history. You could say 2002 is the date when we started this work," he said.

Fidyka's operation took place in December 2012 but it took four months before the patient first experienced any feeling again below the chest.

“When I felt the first positive signs, I got a burst of adrenaline, inspiring me to do constant rehabilitation," Dariusz told journalists.

At present, Fidyka walks with the aid of a stabiliser, and his rehabilitation continues.

The Wroclaw doctors hope that Fidyka's transformation will soon be experienced by other paraylsed patients who had felt their plights were irreversible. (nh/pg)

Source: PAP/Gazeta Wyborcza