Man gets bionic anus
Bow L. Moovmint
British Man Has 'Bionic Bottom'
Remote Control Helps Man Use Bowels After Motorcycle Accident
By KI MAE HEUSSNER
Nov. 17, 2009
Ged Galvin keeps a cell phone-sized remote control in his pocket at all
times.
But it doesn't power his TV or DVD player. It helps him control his bowels.
In a devastating motorcycle accident two years ago, the 55-year-old from
South Yorkshire, England, suffered major internal injuries. Though doctors
initially thought he might not live, they miraculously restored broken
wrists, a shattered leg, a fractured pelvic bone, a detached retina and
more.
To Galvin's dismay, however, they couldn't repair the muscles in his bottom
responsible for controlling bowel movements. He underwent a colostomy -- a
procedure that allows patients to pass fecal matter through an opening in
the abdomen, instead of the rectum, but he said he dreaded living forever
with a colostomy bag outside his body.
But an innovative medical technique that allows him to defecate normally,
with a pacemaker-like device and remote control, he said, has given him a
new lease on life.
"I've been through immense pain and suffering," Galvin said. "And here I am
with this bionic bottom now. I feel great. I feel fantastic."
Galvin: Accident 'Ripped Me in Two'
The IT project manager, and father of two, said he was riding his
motorcycle near his home two years ago, when a car shot out of a side road.
The collision threw him 20 yards and, he said, "ripped me in two."
He spent 13 weeks in the hospital and three more in rehab. At first,
doctors didn't think he would even survive the accident. Then, they didn't
think he would ever walk again.
Time and again, Galvin's progress blew his doctors away.
"I was determined I was going to walk again. I knew I had to push myself,"
he said. "I'm really positive about things. I've always been like that. ...
I just used the same mentality. I needed to get my body back and that's the
consequence."
He also added, slyly, "I'm very stubborn by nature."
But though he healed beyond everyone's wildest expectations -- ultimately
even walking -- he said doctors still couldn't address the problem he
disliked most of all: the colostomy bag.
Colostomy Bag Like 'Dark Secret'
"I didn't want to tell people I have a stoma bag," he said. "It's a dark
secret you're living with. Not necessarily because you're embarrassed but
because you don't want to embarrass them either."
Twice, he said, doctors attempted operations to restore the sphincter
muscles in his rear that control bowel movements. But Galvin was told the
muscles were damaged beyond repair.
Still, he persevered, and his stubbornness apparently paid off.
His doctor referred him to Dr. Norman Williams, a Royal London Hospital
surgeon and bowel disorder specialist, who thought Galvin would be an ideal
candidate for his technique.
Called the Electrically Stimulated Gracilis Neosphincter (ESGN) operation,
the procedure involves cutting a leg muscle from the groin to the knee and
wrapping it around the patient's anus. The underlying theory is that the
muscle, called the gracilis, will serve the function of the damaged
sphincter muscle.
Leg Muscle Trained to Control Bowels
Though the gracilis and sphincter are different kinds of muscles -- one
only works in short bursts, like when you want to run, and one must
constrict continually -- the gracilis can be trained electrically to act
like a sphincter and keep the anal canal closed.
To keep the muscle from falling back to its natural state, doctors also
place an electrode on the nerve leading to the transplanted gracilis and
attach it to a pacemaker-like stimulator in the patient's abdomen.
When activated, the stimulator sends electric impulses to keep the
sphincter closed. When the stimulator is shut off via remote control, the
muscle relaxes, allowing the bowels to open.
Galvin said he can actually relieve himself when the stimulator is still on
but it's easier when it's off.
"There are lots of people in the same situation as me that potentially this
operation can help," he said. "It changed my life again."
According to the U.K. charity, Bowel & Cancer Research, which Williams
chairs and which funded Galvin's procedure, the technique has helped about
180 patients at the Royal London Hospital over the past 20 years.
Similar Technique Only Practiced by a Few U.S. Centers
American doctors say that though the operation has been studied in the
United States, the technique is not widely practiced here.
Dr. Robert Cima, a colorectal surgeon with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester,
Minn., estimated that about half a dozen centers in the United States have
performed similar operations involving the gracilis and a stimulator since
the late 1990s.
But though they found that it was a feasible treatment for fecal
incontinence, it led to a number of post-operative downsides. It is
estimated that about a third of patients will have some type of
complication, he said.
Though 50 percent to 60 percent of the patients were able to remain
continent while the stimulator was on, he said the main problem was keeping
the muscle stimulated. Sometimes the wires connecting the stimulator the
muscle would break, other times the muscle just wouldn't tolerate the
constant stimulus, he said.
"Most of the patients who have incontinence are not like this gentleman,"
Cima said about Galvin, who said he was very fit at the time of his
accident. "He was the ideal candidate."
Many patients with incontinence, he said, are older women who experienced
fecal incontinence after childbirth. The lack of a strong gracilis muscle
and other damaged nerves and muscles around the anus might compromise the
technique's effectiveness, he added.
For most patients, he said, other treatments for incontinence suffice.
He also emphasized that many people in the United States have colostomy
bags, like the one Galvin used to have, and enjoy a high quality of life.
"Their quality of life is similar to that of Americans in general," he
said. "It all depends on your mindset."
Even though people don't talk about it, he said tens of thousands of
Americans live with a colostomy bag or something similar.
"It's not like it was 20, 30 years ago. The technology and our
understanding of how to construct a good ostomy have changed drastically,"
he said.
For his part, Galvin acknowledges that it's "a personal thing," but added,"
It just gave me my confidence back and basically gave me my life back."
The Wiz
Drumrboy
wrote:
> http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/MindMoodNews/british-man-bionic-...
> British Man Has 'Bionic Bottom'
> Remote Control Helps Man Use Bowels After Motorcycle Accident
> By KI MAE HEUSSNER
> Nov. 17, 2009
>
> Ged Galvin keeps a cell phone-sized remote control in his pocket at all
> times.
>
> But it doesn't power his TV or DVD player. It helps him control his bowels.
Baba Booey must be going out of his mind trying to book this freak.
george bush@tsniffsniff.net Chuckles McCheney
"Drumrboy" <drum...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:ceded635-f887-4c3c...@m33g2000vbi.googlegroups.com...
=================
Beck wants to fuck him.
BUZZKILL
> http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/MindMoodNews/british-man-bionic-bottom/story?id=9100436
> British Man Has 'Bionic Bottom'
Does this make this guy a power bottom?
rwa2play (Lost mode on)
> > British Man Has 'Bionic Bottom'
>
> Does this make this guy a power bottom?
Ummmm...WOW!
--
rwa2play (Lost mode on)
That's...harsh.
buzz
Russell Tavek
I would sure like to fuck him in that new turd cutter! I bet he can
milk you
dry with ease. Ass muscle control as easy as flipping a stitch.