After losing his back feet to a combine harvester, Oscar the cat thought he would never walk again, but we can rebuild him. We have the technology.
Noel Fitzpatrick, a veterinary surgeon based in Surrey, England, is the subject of a BBC documentary titled The Bionic Vet, and for good reason. Working in tandem with a team from University College London led by Professor Gordon Blunn, Fitzpatrick may have revolutionized the field of prosthetics by implanting metal pegs into the leg bones of a black cat.
What's so special about implanting metal pegs? Nothing at all, if you're expecting infection and eventual rejection. Bone and skin generally don't mesh well with metal.
But these metal pegs, called intraosseous transcutaneous amputation prosthetics, or Itaps, actually have the bone and skin growing into them. Says Fitzpatrick:
