A cutting edge procedure performed by Dr. Noel Fitzpatrick (star of the BBC’s new show The Bionic Vet) provided Oscar a new way to walk around, which means that he will not need to be euthanized. This video caught my attention and still is exciting to watch. I decided to look into the story behind the bionic surgery success story.
Here’s a quick timeline
- 2003-2006 – Dr. Gordon Blunn and his group at University College London investigated nature’s solution to breaching the skin barrier, the base of a deer antler. Research was performed using adult goats to evaluate the body’s reaction to different prothesus designs
- 2006 – Clinical trials in humans look successful, two people in the study are survivors of the 7/7 London bus bombings.
- 2007 – A Belgian Shepherd named Storm receives an ITAP (implant) and a carbon fiber paw
- 2010 – Oscar receives TWO implants, and gets a new chance at life.
Regards
Andrea Knipe
Speaking of Research 
It’s a facinating development, and has a huge potential to improve human and veterinary medicine. Dr. Noel Fitzpatrick was on Radio 4 this morning discussing the “one life, one medicine” educational charity that he is founding to help this kind of interdisciplinary research: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t25wv
I expect that this charity will play a similar role in the UK to that played by the “One Health Initiative” in the US: http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/index.php
Dr. Fitzpatrick has more about this and other work on his own website at: http://www.fitzpatrickreferrals.co.uk/press-releases/06/10/bionic-vet-gives-cat-pair-prosthetic-paws-world-first-operation