The Lebanese American surgeon Dr. Mohammed Baydoun brought an unexpected hope to so many families worldwide. He just made a patient, who was paralyzed from the neck down, walk again.
After an accident two years earlier that had caused him a spinal cord injury, the patient was told that he will never be on his feet again. And now, he is walking again, thanks to Dr. Baydoun!
The life-turning medical achievement started when patient Chris Barr received a call from Dr. Mohamad Baydoun, a neurosurgeon and spine specialist leading an innovative trial at the Mayo Clinic.
During the call, Dr. Baydoun informed Chris about his potentially historic trial that would include him as part of a 10 patient study.
He explained that stem cells would be taken from his stomach fat and injected into his spine to promote regeneration in his injured spinal cord and repair it.
As soon as the procedure was done the patient started seeing miraculous results and for the first time. Chris said he felt improvements quickly when he first started getting feeling back in his legs — something he hadn’t experienced for almost a year.
“After we treated him, the improvements started to come quickly; and small things, being able to tie his shoes, you know, things that weren’t happening.” Dr. Baydoun told Good Morning America.
Speaking about his story and his participation in the procedure, Chris Barr told Good Morning America program that he “feels blessed to have the opportunity to participate in this. You know, whatever happened, I was: Yeah, let’s do this.”
This procedure was completely experimental, as no other medical procedure had done it with stem cells before, and Chris Barr was patient number one for Baydoun’s trial, which yielded miraculous results for the paralyzed patient.
As per Mayo Clinic, neurosurgeon Mohamad Baydoun, M.D. is fellowship-trained in complex spinal surgery and spinal oncology. He specializes in minimally invasive spine surgery (MIS) for a variety of spinal conditions, including back pain, neck pain, spinal stenosis, and spinal fusion.
Dr. Baydoun holds clinical expertise in the many areas of spinal medicine, including stem cell therapies for degenerative spine disease and spinal cord injury.
It is certain that his procedure will be sought by so many across the world. It is simply amazing just to think about how many paralyzed people would be able to walk again.