For many, the shock of a traumatic brain injury means a lifetime of therapy, incurable symptoms and very little hope. But that could be about to change, with world-leading Australian research on the cusp of a breakthrough new treatment.
Julian Saavedra is 34, hardworking but he lives with an invisible disability. At 18, he was run over by a taxi in East Brisbane, leaving him in a coma for three months, just a day before starting university.
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“The main part of my brain that got affected was the frontal lobe. I have memory problems, I have concentration problems,” Saavedra said. “It’s completely changed my life.”
For a decade, scientists at Griffith University on the Gold Coast have focused their energy on spinal injuries. Currently underway are clinical trials delivering early results long considered medically impossible.
In Poland, a man who was paralysed from the chest down has regained movement through similar research, marking a revolution in the treatment of paralysis.
The treatment works by extracting cells found in the nose. These cells have the power to regenerate damaged areas, absorbing dead cells and restoring lost pathways. This breakthrough is now being applied to the brain.
Scientists say they are just five years away from bringing a possible cure to the table.
“This project could give them their lives back,” Queensland finance minister Ros Bates said.
But it needs funding, a lot of it. More than $5 million is locked in from the Queensland government, but many times that is needed to get to trials.
“Any kind of help would be amazing,” Saavedra said.
It’s hope for the hundreds of thousands of Australians who thought they had very little left.
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