Tuesday, October 02, 2012

Woman Grows Ear...On Her Arm!

I know, sensationalistic, but honestly how often do I ever get the chance to really come up with a totally lurid article title! Plus have it be 100% absolutely true!

That's right, A woman really did grow an ear on her arm, it's the circumstances I have omitted... This is what the Boing Boing article said:
  • A woman whose exterior ear was removed during her fight with cancer has grown a replacement ear made from starter-tissue harvested from her rib. (when it was mature) it was removed from her arm and affixed to the side of her head. 
And who is doing this "cutting" (sorry) edge plastic surgery? Doctors at Johns Hopkins according to this CBS News Article 

Sherrie Walters lost her ear to an extremely aggressive rapidly-spreading basal cell cancer, in 2008. 

Doctors took cartilage from Walters’ ribs (and) stitched together a new ear matching her right ear which they then implanted it under the skin of her forearm, where it grew for months.

  

2 comments:

Dave Tackett said...

It's certainly an important medical breakthrough with a science fiction feel to it, but still there is definite "yuck" factor about an ear growing on your arm, like a bad mutant story from the 1950s.

Beam Me Up said...

Now you know why I just HAD to post it! It was "all right!" and eeeeeeeuuuuuu! in the same sentence!