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WASHINGTON, April 17, 2008 – The Defense Department today launched a five-year, Army-led cooperative effort to leverage cutting-edge medical technology to develop new ways to assist servicemembers who’ve suffered severe, disfiguring wounds during their wartime service. U.S. Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker explains, during an April 17, 2008 Pentagon press conference, how researchers are growing a new ear for a badly burned Marine using stem cells from his own body. This is one area of advanced treatment being explored by the new Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine. Defense Dept. photo by R. D. Ward   (Click photo...

Regenerative Powder Helped Re-Grow A Man's Fingertip, And Could Change Medicine (CBS) A new generation of researchers is changing the way we heal, one cell at a time. This is the second in a CBS News series on the innovative field of regenerative medicine. You might become a believer in the power of magic dust, when you see how a special powder re-grew the tip of Lee Spievack's finger. He sliced off a half inch of his finger in the propeller of a hobby shop airplane. His finger never even formed a scar. "Your finger grew back flesh, blood, vessels...

I humbly ask for everyone on FR to pray for my niece born on Wednesday. She is undergoing a heart operation @ CHOP in Phily to treat a heart defect called transposition of the great arteries. She was born to a loving family and they would like all the help they can get. Thanks, frogjerk

A quick request, as I trust and value the prayers of all the saints on here...the daughter of one of my best friends is home sick from college with something they can't pin down. She is studying to be youth minister and as vibrant and wonderful as anybody you've ever met. Three weeks ago, she began running a 103 degree tempterature, and went in the hospital near Cleveland I think. Temp finally dropped but all her immunities are low' they've shipped her home to Cincinnat, but have "white roomed" her room at home, and in recent days she's gone back...

A national weekly news magazine recently featured a debate between atheist/author Sam Harris and author/pastor Rick Warren ("The Purpose Driven Life"). As part of his debate, Mr. Harris threw down a challenge to prove God's existence by finding a deserving amputee and having 1 billion people pray for God to grow the leg back. In trying to disprove the existence of God, it's unclear why Mr. Harris chooses to focus on amputees growing limbs back rather than looking for a sea to split open or fish and loaves to multiply, and it's equally unclear why Harris specifically asked that it...

JOST VAN DYKE, British Virgin Islands, Oct. 30, 2007 – A group of injured war veterans on a 12-mile round-trip kayak adventure paused on the shores of this small British island earlier this month for a two-night stay at a campground locally known as “Ivan’s.” A sign at “Ivan’s Local Flavor Stress Free Bar,” part of White Bay Campground on Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands, says it all for a group of injured war veterans and their spouses. For the veterans participating in a Team River Runner adaptive kayaking and camping adventure trip, Ivan’s did, indeed equal healing....

It has been nearly a month since members of the Jeppi family gathered in the living room of their Baldwin home to pray for 12-year-old Sal, who had been suffering from headaches so severe they left him unable to walk.Sal's father, for whom he is named, was in the living room, with its brick fireplace and high ceiling. So were his mother, Denise; his sister, Ashley, 10; and other relatives.An uncle, Darren Upham, led the prayer -- as young Sal recalled, "just that I would get healed."Sal felt what he called "a warm, tingly feeling" that didn't strike him...

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas, July 6, 2007 – Sweetheart, Jackson and Ellie Mae, three pooches, are helping to change the lives of wounded warriors at Brooke Army Medical Center here. Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Pettway snuggles up to Ellie Mae, a Lhasa Apso, held by dog trainer and owner Charlie Brugnola at the Center for the Intrepid, a physical rehabilitation center. Photo by Jen Rodriguez  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The mixed beagle, German shepherd and Lhasa Apso are therapy dogs trained to console soldiers, family members and sometimes medical staff with reassuring hugs and occasionally dog kisses....

Surgeons are using stem cells to fix broken bones that won't mend on their own, Sky News has learned. Patients who faced a life of disability or even an amputation because of serious fractures have been able to walk once more. Fifteen patients have so-far been treated in a ground-breaking clinical trial at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Oswestry. Assessments of the first 10 patients show that 8 have been successfully healed. They are able to drive and return to work. Previous attempts to rejoin the bones using metal pins and plates had all failed. Consultant...

Through this Operation Recruiter Appreciation I met a woman whose grandson is fighting cancer. He loves postcards, so I sent him one from D.C. She wrote me back saying he loved it and put it in his scrapbook. Unfortunately, of the family/ friends she asked, only one other person wrote him one. So I'm now respectfully requesting that you consider sending him one and mention Gathering of Eagles. Zach is 12, and he just had an operation to get a tumor from behind his ear. The good news is the doctor thought it went very well. The bad news is...

After a 17-year-old boy died, oil began seeping through his bedroom walls and ash appeared on the floor. Some now believe he was a messenger of God. There are crowds in a suburban Sydney street this evening, as there have been for weeks. They are hoping for a miracle, to be touched by the hand of God. All because of a young boy who died and occurrences inside the house that are so far unexplained by science. They line up for hours, hundreds at a time, to enter the small suburban home, a place thousands call "God on Earth". Inside...

Traditional Masculinity Can Aid Recovery from Serious Injuries, MU Study Finds COLUMBIA, Mo. - For years, experts have said that the strong, silent male is not one to ask for help when he's hurt, and therefore at a disadvantage when it comes to getting better. But new research says this might not be completely accurate. This masculine identity often associated with men in the armed forces and other high-risk occupations may actually encourage and quicken a man's recovery from serious injuries, says a new exploratory study from the University of Missouri-Columbia. The study is the first to quantitatively confirm correlations...

VAIL, Colo., March 10, 2007 – After two days of skiing and snowboarding, last night was all about fun for the 25 injured veterans participating in the Vail Veterans Program here and their guests. Army Sgt. J.R. Salzman (from left), adaptive snowboard instructor Eric Norton, Wendy Owen, and Josie Salzman, fly down a tubing trail at Vail Mountain’s Adventure Ridge on March 9 in Vail, Colo. The outing, which included ski biking and dinner, was a time for the 25 injured veterans and their guests to come together as a group after two days of private and group lessons....

New Scientist has received an unprecedented amount of interest in this story from readers. If you would like up-to-date information on any plans for clinical trials of DCA in patients with cancer, or would like to donate towards a fund for such trials, please visit the site set up by the University of Alberta and the Alberta Cancer Board. We will also follow events closely and will report any progress as it happens. It sounds almost too good to be true: a cheap and simple drug that kills almost all cancers by switching off their “immortality”. The drug, dichloroacetate (DCA),...

The late Pope John Paul II praying in front of the remains of Blessed Gorg Preca at the MUSEUM chapel in Blata l-Bajda in May 2001 The Congregation for Sainthood Causes in Rome has approved a second miracle that should lead to the canonisation of the Blessed Gorg Preca, the Archbishop's Curia said yesterday. The decision was taken following a discussion held at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican headed by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins on Tuesday. The decision was originally expected in the middle of last year but was delayed. Pope John Paul II beatified Dun Gorg in...

Is it a miracle that a legally blind man now has perfect vision? CNN's Jason Carroll reports. (December 21) VIDEO LINK

Folks, I would like to ask all of you belivers for a prayer for my nephew, Shawn. He is 20 and trying to get into the Army as Linguist. This weekend, he went to the doctor to have a mole removed and the doctor is very concerned due to the size and depth of the mole. In short, the doc is having it tested for cancer. If it is cancer, besides the physical trama, it will shatter his dreams of serving his country... something Shawn has desired since he was in his early teens. It will be heard for him...

HUSAYBA — Navy Seaman Samuel L. Blanco is a healer. The hospital corpsman, geared up in layers of body armor, has a bag of tricks he carries that heals not just bumps and bruises, scrapes and cuts, but also relations and trust between Americans and local Iraqis. During a Sept. 23 patrol with 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, Blanco provided health care for dozens of Iraqi villagers. “From an American view, it gives us a sense of pride to know that Iraqis would come to us,” said Blanco, a 26-year-old from Justin, Texas, assigned to Weapons Company. He said less...

KENNETT SQUARE, Penn. It's been just over three months since Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro was severely injured, breaking his leg while running the Preakness. Though his recovery has been slow and anything but steady, the colt's doctors are very encouraged by his recent progress, according to The Early Show's resident veterinarian, Dr. Debbye Turner. She went to New Bolton Center at the University of Pennsylvania College of Veterinary Medicine in Kennett Square, Penn., to visit Barbaro and his surgeon, fellow veterinarian Dr. Dean Richardson, and filed an exclusive update on the thoroughbred's condition. From the start, Turner said, Barbaro has...

Lucille Pope's red oak tree has baffled tree experts, water specialists and nursery professionals. The knotted, towering tree, more than 100 years old, has become the root of scrutiny in her East Side neighborhood. The tree has gurgled water from its trunk for the past three months. Pope, 65, has sought answers from several specialists, calling experts from the Texas Forest Service, the Edwards Aquifer Authority and nurseries for an explanation. They've combed her backyard, probing the gnarled tree that leans away from a parked white 1980s Cadillac. After snapping pictures, doing taste tests and conducting preliminary studies, they're still...