Summary:
1. Sgt. Ron Strang had part of left thigh blown off in explosion in Afghanistan
2. Strang needed multiple surgeries that left him with a huge divot in his left leg where quad the muscle had been
3. Could not move leg forwards, only backwards
4. Could walk, but only awkwardly
5. Strang was very athletic, but with his new injury, he had to give up running... for the time being
6. Now, he runs on the treadmill with only slight limp, basically unnoticeable to strangers
7. How did this happen, I'm about to tell you...
Opinion:
2010, there was the Vancouver Olympic Games, the horrific 7.0 Hurricane that struck Haiti, Spain won the World Cup, and many other important events. Looking back on the year that was, it was an emotional and busy year, but for Sgt. Ron Strang of the US Marines, this year changed his life forever.
Strang was in Afganistan as part of the US Marines in the summer of 2010 when a bomb took off the left side of his quad muscle completely. After a series of surgeries, he was going to be ok, but thought that he may never walk normally, if ever, again.
Enter medical advances over the last 50 years and you have a man who is now walking with ease, is running the treadmill (also something that he couldn't do 2 years ago) and the limp is basically nonexistent. How did this happen, lets find out...
Strang has essentially fully recovered from his devastating injury from an unlikely source. He had muscle from another being out into his left quad to replace the muscle he lost. No, the muscle was not from family or not even from a human for that matter, but from a pig! A pig? Yes a pig. The process sounds like a long and grueling one for both the doctors and especially Strang, but it actually is not and that's the amazing thing.
Basically, the doctors replaced the lost muscle with a material called extra cellular matrix.This can be found in pigs, humans or any animal. It is the natural scaffolding that underlies all organs and tissues. It is produced by cells and for many years, scientists thought that its primary purpose was to hold them in the proper position.
Researchers now know, however, that the scaffolding also signals the body to grow and repair those tissues and organs. With this new knowledge, new body builders are using this material from pigs and other animals to engineer the growth and development of damaged tissues.
Sgt. Strang is one of the first cases in what will become an 80 patient trial to help repair and develop damaged tissues. This trial is financed by the Defense Departments Office of technology Transition, but will include civilians as well. Dr. Peter Rubin, who is a plastic surgeon at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, says that the results were "spurring" and that "we are seeing evidence of remodeling of tissues".
All in all, medical advances have not yet found the cure for cancer, or many other diseases, but with this, and other ever growing amounts of medical knowledge, we r not far off from saving and helping billions of lives, just like Sgt. Strang.
In the picture above, you can see
the "sheet" of extra cellular matrix
being placed and eventually
bonding with the existing tissue.
Currently, Sgt. Strang lived with his girlfriend Monica
Michna and is recovering well from the transplant.
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