By Ty Brennan
A Peoria man was the first person in the world to undergo a revolutionary type of surgery.
The surgery was about seven months ago, and since then, he’s been seeing improvements.
He’s also working to help future patients
of this same type of surgery.
October 13 was the day that changed Jordan Fallis’ life forever.
“I was just riding my dirt bike, went for a back flip, under-rotated it, and basically just scorpioned myself,” said Fallis.
His spinal cord was severely injured, but Fallis said he was in the right place at the right time.
He was the very first patient in the world to undergo a revolutionary surgery from the doctors at Barrow Neurological Institute.
A small rice-shaped scaffolding made by a company called Invivo was implanted on his spinal cord. The hope is that the scaffolding will help his nerve endings regrow, and repair the damaged portion of his spinal cord.
“I know, I can’t give you the exact percentages, but it is 90 percent of people with injuries as bad as mine don’t have or don’t get as muchimprovement as I have,” he said.
In therapy, Fallis can move his legs and walk underwater.
