I Could Have Made Christopher Reeves Walk Again

In 1974 in Springfield, Missouri I talked with the chief of surgery at the Cox Medical Center.  I told him about a device I call the nerve bypass.  It would be a solidstate device that will connect nerves to allow signals to continue.  I also talked to him about intrabody nerve transplants in which a nerve from one part of the body would be transplanted to another part of the body.  He said both were impossible.  They’ve done the intrabody nerve transplant.  I believe they could have perfected my nerve bypass years ago. 

In the beginning I believed a step-up transformer was needed and an energy supply to continue the signal and a step-down transformer to reduce the current.  With biojunctions and electrochemical connections, there may not be a need for more energy.  If a battery is needed, low current would be needed. 

The device would be small enough to easily connect into the nervous system.  If it were inserted into the spinal cord, people that are paralyzed should be able to function normally again.  I might have been able to allow Christopher Reeves to walk again since he had a spinal cord injury.  Too bad he lived less than 50 miles away from me and the idea had been spoken about on the radio years before the accident. 

With stem cells, nerve cells could be produced.  They can be adult stem cells and even stem cells from the person needing to be treated.  There should be no rejection then. 

Replication of existing nerve cells could be used too.  That means the tissue from Reeves might have been used to produce replicants of the damaged nerve cells.  They would have been cultivated outside the body before replacing the useless cells.  

Biojunctions and fiberoptics might have been used.  When a signal originated in the brain, it would activate a biojunction that would activate a laser that would send the signal via optical fiber to the next biojunction.  The signal would continue on. 

For a signal to go from a portion of the body to the brain, it may need an energy boost to do it.   A battery pack might be used to boost the signal.  The useless nerves would be removed to allow the signal to continue without dead material being in the way. 

They have used exterior links that required muscle stimulation.  But the actions are jerky.  My nerve bypass should be better since it would be inserted into the nervous system. 

Biosynthetic nerves might be implanted to replace the nerves that don’t work.  If there is extensive nerve damage, more nerves will have to be constructed and implanted.  If nerve damage makes such things as eyes useless, synthetic nerves might do the trick. 

Something similar to the nerve bypass is the pain bypass.  It would detect pain signals and prevent them from reaching the brain.  This is important for people who are in constant pain.  An implantable pain bypass device could eliminate suffering. 

In hospitals, pain bypass units would monitor patients so that they won’t feel pain.  But the amount of pain they would have felt will be monitored.  A doctor could enter the hospital room, look at the monitor, and see if the pain signals have gone down or up.  If a part of the body is healing, the signals should be reduced.  Since pain often keeps people from recovering quickly, the bypass will help hasten healing. 

With nerve and pain bypass units, people will be able to function normally again.  If we can create synthetic nerves, even my bypass units may not be needed.  To move and live pain free is a dream millions of people have today.  Maybe the dream will become reality in the future.