“Pixie Dust” Regrows Severed Finger

I would be more comfortable about this tremendous potential advance in healing serious wounds if it were reported in a peer reviewed medical journal rather than the sensationalistic Daily “Halle Berry Shows She’s a REAL Mom as Dress Reveals Post Baby Tummy” Mail, but the story seems convincing: A man’s partially severed finger has been made to regrow with an experimental powder. From the story:

Scientists are claiming an amazing breakthrough – regrowing a man’s severed finger with the aid of an experimental powder.

Four weeks after Lee Spievack sliced almost half an inch off the top of one of his fingers, he said it had grown back to its original length. Four months later it looked like any other finger, complete with “great feeling”, a fingernail and fingerprint.

And here’s a little matter for animal liberationists to ponder:

The secret to the astonishing regrowth is said to be the powder described by Mr Spievack, a Cincinnati model shop salesman, as “pixie dust”. More properly known as extra-cellular matrix, it is bursting with collagen, the protein that gives skin its strength and elasticity, and is made from dried pig’s bladder.

So, is the inventor akin to a Nazi war criminal because the elixir is partially made up of dead pig?

I’m waiting for Ingrid Newkirk’s press release.

HT: Don Nelson