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WHAT ARE WE LOOKING AT? SEM of liver cells


www.mddus.com OUT THERE


MENDING BROKEN HEARTS A new medical superglue which bonds in seconds under UV light could soon be used to patch heart defects on the operating table or stop bleeding on the battlefield. Developed by Harvard Medical School, it could eventually replace stitches and staples in heart, gut and blood vessel surgery.


…AND BROKEN BONES A pen filled with live cells mixed with seaweed extract can “draw” new bone tissue. The 3D printing BioPen, developed at Wollongong University in Australia, adds layers of tissue cells to damaged bones and combines with existing nerves and muscles. It lets surgeons design customised implants during surgery rather than waiting weeks to grow replacement tissue.


PAIN PREP Magnifying a body part can help dull pain in that area, according to a study at the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy. One expert believes the technique works because a person’s attention is drawn to the place where they are expecting pain, such as an injection point, allowing them to mentally prepare for it.


MIRACLE CURE A 150-year-old drink called Elixir of Long Life has been recreated by scientists after being dug up by archaeologists. The old potion was found with hundreds of others beneath a New York construction site and was believed to be capable of helping people cheat death. The recipe contains various herbs and copious amounts of alcohol.


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Pick: DVD - The Best of Men WHAT ARE WE LOOKING AT?


Stumped? The answer is at the bottom of the page Directed by Tim Whitby, starring Eddie Marsan, Rob Brydon, George Mackay, Niamh Cusack; 2013


OLYMPIC fever has long subsided and there’s every chance you missed this gem of a BBC drama. It tells the story of the remarkable Dr Ludwig Guttmann (Marsan), a pioneer in the field of rehabilitation of spinal injury patients, who all but single-handedly created the Paralympic Games. It’s 1944 and Guttmann has


arrived to take charge of Stoke Mandeville’s new unit for patients with spinal injuries, many of whom


Book Review:


The Shock of the Fall The Borough Press: £14.29 hardback; £7.99 paperback, 2014


Review by Jim Killgore, publications editor, MDDUS


A FORMER mental health nurse, Nathan Filer, won the Costa Book of the Year for his debut novel – and well deserved it is. Narrated by 19-year-old Matt Homes, this haunting tale is a vivid account of developing schizophrenia but with a voice that is caustic, witty and heart-breaking in turn – at times not unlike Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye.


are WW2 casualties. It is a dark and depressing place where patients spend most of their time immobile and heavily medicated, the victims of old fashioned medical thinking. It’s not long before Guttmann is throwing open curtains and applying his forward-thinking techniques to revitalise his charges, much to the consternation of some in the old guard.


Marsan is superb as the great doctor, triumphing over what could


have been a mangled foreign accent, whose no-nonsense approach is balanced by deep compassion and caring. The result is a heart-warming and uplifting tale that shows the value of thinking outside the box of outdated practice to realise the potential beyond. It was Guttmann’s campaign to introduce competitive sport as therapy that eventually grew into the Paralympic Games we have today.


“I have an illness, a disease with the shape and sound of a snake. Whenever I learn something new, it learns it too … My illness knows everything I know. This was a difficult thing to get my head around.” The story centres on the tragic


death of the narrator’s sweet and much loved older brother Simon, who has Down’s syndrome. It devastates his family and Matt feels terrible guilt over his brother but for reasons not completely apparent until near the end of the novel. Over the course of the story he circles the truth while also offering a sharp perspective on a mental health system which he sometimes hates yet relies on. One telling episode, among


others, is when Matt asks to look up a medical term about his brother and a student social worker panics “as if the Nursing Dictionary contains all the secrets that patients aren’t allowed to know.” An occupational therapist named Steve tosses the book to Matt who observes: “The really funny thing is that


Steve made that little clicking noise with his tongue, and winked at me, as if to show that he was on


my side or something. Except you’re not on my side, are you Steve? Because if you were on my side you just would have handed me the dictionary like a grown-up... But that is what these people do – the Steves of this world – they all try and make something out of


nothing. And they all do it for themselves.” Many such uncomfortable


truths are exposed and with bitter humour. Highly recommended.


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