Wounded Mass. Man Is First Veteran To Get Experimental Amputation
RAYNHAM (CBS) -- A Raynham veteran is getting an experimental treatment that could have the brain talking to a new set of high-tech prosthetics.
The CBS Evening News aired a report Monday evening on Brandon Korona - the first veteran to undergo this procedure. Korona's left leg was crushed by a land mine in Afghanistan four years ago, and he's given up on trying to save it.
"It was all rods, screws and some bone that didn't grow back right… It looked like a leg, but it wasn't a leg," he told CBS News.
Doctors at Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital removed the lower part of his leg with a new procedure that could have big implications for how amputations are approached.
"In the past all that has been asked of an amputated limb is to provide an adequate padding surface in order for a prosthetic to be adequately mounted," Dr. Matthew Carty told CBS News.
Surgeons can now connect the leg's front and back muscles together and have them keep working in coordination with the brain, which Carty said "enables us to walk normally."
The hope is this could lead to a new generation of smart prosthetics.
Get the full story via CBS News.