Paralyzed Man Regains Partial Use of Arms, Hands From Stem Cell Therapy

After an experimental stem cell procedure, a paralyzed 21-year-old California man has regained partial function of his arms again.

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Twenty-one-year-old California Kris Boesen wasn't able to feed himself, drink, or text after a car accident in March left him with a severe spinal chord injury. "I was basically just existing. I wasn't really living my life," he told Fox 5 News.

That changed just weeks later after an experimental stem cell procedure at the University of Southern California's Keck Medical Center. The procedure, a clinical trial, had to be performed between two and four weeks of Boesen's accident. So in early April, doctors injected 10 million stem cells into Boesen's injured spinal chord. He was reportedly showing improvement mere weeks after the surgery.

He's now back home and able to feed himself. He can also write his name, operate his wheelchair, and use his phone.

"Patients who suffer these disabilities want more than anything else to do something for themselves. They want to be more independent, less dependent. It makes all of us appreciate how important it is that we can do these things," the director of the USC Neurorestoration Center, Charles Liu, told Fox 5.

The station also reports that six medical centers around the country are participating in the stem cell clinical trial.All five patients who have undergone the therapy this year are showing signs of improvement, according toYahoo News. The results were so encouraging to doctors that they released the interim data months early, but the final results of the study won't be released until January.

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