The Happy Pod: 'I'm blind but I can read a book again'

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This is the happy pod from the BBC World Service.

I'm Jeanette Jalil and in this edition.

I could have cried when I looked because I haven't seen letters for so long and then I lit up the word and it was overwhelming.

We learn about the implants allowing blind patients to to read again.

The woman who played the clarinet while she was having surgery on her brain for Parkinson's disease.

Before I had the operation I could only swim about one stroke so I had got to the point where it was really difficult to move and it's just completely changed my life.

Plus we owe them.

We have to cherish and conserve them because nowadays it's all machines.

We have to conserve Thai buffaloes as much as we can.

Redefining water buffaloes as beauty queens.

And?

She stood there for, it was probably only 10 seconds, but it felt like about 10 minutes.

We had this standoff.

It was just a tableau.

The dog that squared up to a bear.

Find out who won.

We begin with a medical breakthrough, a new piece of technology that's helped blind patients regain the ability to read.

Doctors at Moorefield's Eye Hospital here in London used microchips implanted at the back of the eyes in five patients.

The results of this international trial have been described as astounding.

The Happy Pods Harry Bly spoke to the BBC's medical editor, Fergus Walsh.

So it's a 2mm by 2mm of chip, which is as thin as a human hair, which is implanted behind the retina of patients.

The way it works is the patient puts on a rather clunky pair of spectacles and they have a tiny camera which

projects via infrared the image of what the person's looking at onto the chip.

The chip then sends that signal to a little computer and then it enhances it and that then goes via the optic nerve to the brain and the patients have to learn how to interpret those images.

It's not like suddenly you switch it on, and I can read again.

It takes them months of really hard work,

but it's an extraordinary technology.

And Fergus, you spoke to one of the patients who's had this implant fitted, Sheila Irwin.

What was the process like for her?

Yeah, Sheila's a lovely character.

When I met her, it was

a really joyous experience because it's so lovely to report on technology which is producing positive effects.

Obviously, these patients, when they go into this, they don't know whether it's going to work.

They have to undergo surgery to have the implant.

But she's the absolute star of this European trial.

Of 32 patients fitted with the implant who were followed up for a year, 27 were able to read again using their central vision.

And on average, that equated to an improvement about 25 letters or five lines on an eye chart.

but Sheila could read every, every line on an eye chart.

You know, and when I met Sheila, she was coming down the corridor with her white cane.

She cannot see, but when she sits and puts these glasses on, she can read a book.

How extraordinary.

And tell me about her reaction to being able to read all of these letters on the chart.

I met Sheila at Moorfield's Eye Hospital in London and talked to her about the technology.

She was wearing the glasses, she was reading and asked her, you know, what difference it had made to her life.

Amazing.

When happy bunny.

I could have cried when I looked because I haven't seen letters for so long and then I lit up the word and it was overwhelming.

It's really made a tangible difference to your life?

A big difference entirely.

I read the post,

read books, do crosswords, sudo kyo.

Did you ever imagine that you'd be able to read a book again?

Never.

She punched the air wa when she did it.

It was it was great.

Sh she loves it.

And what the important thing to point out is a couple of things.

It's not this technology isn't perfect.

She can't wear it walking around.

The vision it gives is very a very narrow beam of vision.

It's basically like one word at a time.

But what she said she does is that she rushes her chores at home, then she sits down, puts the glasses on, opens her post, does Sudoku and reads again.

And she was an avid bookworm and the two things that really made her cry was when she had to give up driving

and then when she couldn't read again.

So they, with patients who've lost their sight, it's those two things that are often the really the big thing.

So to tackle one of those and

give them vision where they can read is, I think it's, well, the surgeon said it's really practical, potentially life-changing for these patients.

Fergus, you've covered a huge variety of medical stories over the years, including throughout the COVID pandemic.

But this must be nice for you, as the BBC's medical editor, to cover a story that offers hope to so many people.

It really is.

And when I do get to do stories where patients really benefit, I mean that the ultimate goal is that they go from sick to cured.

I mean, that doesn't happen very often.

But I think we'd all take this.

I mean, it's work in progress.

It's not the end of the story on this

use of implants.

But it is lovely to be able to report where you can see the sheer joy from people like Sheila.

Fergus Walsh, there, speaking to Harry Bly.

And from one medical marvel to another, take a listen to this.

That's Denise Bacon playing the clarinet.

Denise has Parkinson's disease and underwent a procedure called deep brain stimulation, a four-hour operation where electrodes are placed on her brain.

Denise had played clarinet for a local band but had to stop due to her Parkinson's.

Not only was she awake for the procedure, Denise played her clarinet throughout and that allowed the surgeon to fine-tune the position of the electrodes deep inside her brain until she was able to play her beloved musical instrument just like she used to.

My colleague Sarah Montague spoke to Denise about what she felt during the surgery.

I think I was quite amazed that I could get a note out of the clarinet lying in that position and

those conditions.

And then I was just really pleased to see that my fingers moved faster and the sound got stronger and better,

even even though it was only stimulating one side at a time.

And you couldn't feel anything in your brain?

No, nothing.

Well I kind of, I don't know, I think a sort of sensation or maybe just the sound of kind of scratching or something, but no, not really.

And I didn't know all the things that were being done.

And now, what has the effect of that been now?

Well, just huge in that I can walk normally.

I'm not freezing all the time.

I can swim, which I love.

Before I had the operation, I could only swim about one stroke.

So I had got to the point where it was really difficult to move.

And it's just completely changed my life.

And you can play the clarinet as you weren't able to before?

I can't play it as well as before yet because I'm still going through programming of the device.

So they have to turn the electricity up slowly.

And it hasn't yet got to the level that it was in theatre.

But I do find that each time I try to play the clarinet, it gets a bit easier.

Professor Kiomar Ashkan performed the surgery on Denise.

He also spoke to Sarah.

Yeah, deep burning simulation is a highly effective surgical tool.

We have to improve

a range of symptoms in a number of different conditions, including movement disorders.

One of the most frequently encountered movement disorders in our practice is, as you say, is Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease has got a whole spectrum of symptoms, but the most dominant ones from a motor point of view are stiffness of the muscles, slowness of the movements, and problems with tremor, which translates into issues with working, balance, coordination, ability to do daily activities, and as such.

And the merch stimulation as a surgical technique is able to help those symptoms quite considerably by maybe 60, 70%, sometimes 80%.

So it can make a real difference to patients' quality of life

in those who have really are failing to respond to medical treatment and tablets.

Okay, so it is you're you're effectively external stimulation, you're stimulating the parts of the brain.

Yeah, I mean the whole brain works on the basis of electricity.

I mean we are electric beings.

What happens in these movement disorders is that because of some lack of chemicals etc., those electrical patterns and networks become upset.

What we are trying to do is to correct those or bring them in line as far as possible by introducing external electrical stimulation.

So it is an extraordinary video to watch her playing the clarinet as I mean it's sort of discreetly done so you can see you behind.

We can see her and playing better and worse presumably as you're applying electrodes in different places.

What were you doing at the time?

So obviously I was in charge of the head part of this

tennis and surgery.

So beyond the transparent drapes, you will see me on the top end and what I'm doing at

various steps of the surgery.

So, opening the skin with the first part, drilling a tiny hole in the skull, then passing the electrode, which is this very fine wire, 1.27 millimeter in diameter, all the way down to the target that we are aiming to stimulate.

So,

we move the electrode to the vicinity of the target that we have chosen based on the MRI scan.

And then we send test electricity.

And on the body part, my neurology colleagues and clinical specialists are examining the knees real time and giving me feedback so I can optimize the position of the electrode.

So, millimeter by millimeter, based on their findings, assessing her movement, her stiffness of the muscles, tremor.

And in Denise's particular case, her clarinet playing, the real-time feedback would allow me to, you know, fine-tune the position of the electrode until I hit the sweet spot where she had improvement in all those functions, including her ability to play the clarinet.

Now, obviously,

she can play the clarinet, and it was something she wanted to be able to do again.

Absolutely.

Could it apply to something else?

I don't know, somebody's some other ability.

100%.

I mean,

medicine is moving towards providing personalized care.

It's all about personalized care.

And that's why, as part of

all my surgeries, whether I'm doing a brain tumor operation, partners and operation, spine operation, I try and set goals with the patient.

It's a shared decision making.

It is setting the goals.

What is it that the patient wants from the operation?

And based on that, I can tailor my surgery towards that.

So both the patient is happy and I'm also happy because I've met the patient's demands and requests.

Okay, so it could be doing something else.

It could be doing, I don't know, whether it's speaking, singing or some other puzzle.

Absolutely.

But both in this, I mean, when we do awake surgery, whether it's for tumors or for Parkinson's movement disorders, that's what we're doing.

We're assessing different types of functions.

That's why the patient is awake.

So we can evaluate, are we able to normalize those functions for the patient?

And that was Professor Kiomar Ashkan.

Think of beauty contests, and you probably wouldn't associate them with water buffalo, but a number of the large beasts have been reimagined as beauty queens by people in Thailand hoping to improve their image, and for good reason, as Stephanie Prentiss reports.

The crowd are ready, and the contestants are in formation with colourful rope around their necks and through their noses.

Not your classic beauty contest, but this line-up in Chomburi, Thailand, is about to showcase its skills.

It's the talent segment, and given that water buffalo aren't renowned for singing, dancing or playing instruments, it's time for a race.

The buffaloes compete in six categories from super junior size to behemoth.

and judges score them on things like horn size, hoof condition and overall physique.

With the chief of the local district, Somsat Sawakti Monkel saying potential beauty queens are evaluated from a young age.

After they're born up to one year old, we see if they're tall and have wide gaps between their legs.

What do their faces look like?

Are they healthy in general?

And while this is, it also isn't an exercise in buffalo beauty standards.

The point, according to organisers, is to raise the profile of Thai buffaloes, as they're needed less and less as farm animals due to modern techniques, and the national buffalo population has been in steep decline since farming was mechanised.

Successive Thai governments have taken action and even created a Thai Buffalo Conservation Day, but local authorities say the pageants are needed to create interest in them as show animals, to celebrate their role in Thai culture, and to encourage farmers to keep them.

Ongart Praserjit is Chomburi City's mayor.

We've used buffaloes to plow our fields and harvest rice for us to eat, so we owe them.

We have to cherish and conserve them because nowadays it's all machines.

We have to conserve Thai buffaloes as much as we can.

And life on the Buffalo Beauty Pageant circuit really isn't bad.

The contenders are bathed daily and fed a special vitamin-infused diet, as well as being cheered on by crowds of excited fans as they thunder past wearing crowns of flowers.

And that was Stephanie Prentiss reporting.

Still to come on the Happy Pod, replacing polystyring boxes that keep fish fresh by using mushrooms.

We're not using any chemicals or any bounding material.

It's the mushroom itself that's creating this and turning it into a board instead of just a mush.

That's so cool.

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All roads, they say, lead to Rome.

Well, that was the case for a Spanish nun whose order usually doesn't allow anyone to venture beyond the walls of their convent.

But not only did Mother Maria Theresa go to Rome, she also managed to get an audience with Pope Leo just after he was elected.

Oliver Berla went to meet her and she told him all about it.

Tucked away between the hills of the Maestrat in eastern Spain, between olive groves and almond trees, lies the picturesque village of Sant Mateo.

There's a convent here, behind whose walls ten nuns live a life of prayer and contemplation.

Normally, as the prioress Mother Maria Teresa tells me, they don't leave the convent at all.

We are in a convent of contemplative Augustine nuns.

We live under a strict form of religious enclosure, sanctioned by the Pope, and we dedicate ourselves exclusively to prayer, study, and work.

We only leave the convent for justified reasons, such as health problems or outside studies.

But she herself did go out, and not just for a walk around San Mateo or a short trip down to the coast, but for a journey to Rome.

I'm a member of the Commission for the Renewal of the Constitutions of the Order, and after more than two years' work, we had a meeting in Rome.

And it was by pure chance that it coincided with the beginning of Pope Leo's pontificate.

Once in Rome, Mother Maria Teresa and other members of the Order thought it was a good idea to ask for an audience with the new Pope.

He is our brother.

He belongs to the same order as we do.

And as the Vicar General of our order is a personal friend of his, we asked him if he could arrange an audience for the day after the start of the pontificate.

It was a bit difficult.

At first, he said that it was impossible, but in the end, we got it.

It was all very sudden, she tells me.

Late at night, they were told that the next day, Pope Leo would see them.

It was a wonderful moment.

We were very excited.

We even missed our flight back because the audience was at 12, and that was just the departure time.

So we had to buy new tickets, but it was really worth it.

He approached us as if he were just one of us, very humble, very pleased to see us.

He said he was very glad that he didn't have to prepare a special speech for that meeting and that he could just talk normally.

He took my hands and I told him that we were all aware of his great responsibility, but that he wasn't carrying that burden on his own, that we were all with him and that he is in our prayers.

A few weeks before that meeting, the prioress had had an accident which meant that she could only move with the help of a wheelchair or on crutches.

This, she jokes, may be why her sisters back here in San Mateo weren't too jealous that she could meet Pope Leo in Rome.

Oliver Burlau reporting.

For decades, Alaska's fishing crews, like those around around the world have relied on polystyrene boxes to keep their catch cold and fresh but the search for greener less polluting alternatives has led to a rather unlikely option mushrooms.

Researchers have found a way to produce biodegradable storage boxes and even to build insulation using a native fungus.

Anna Holligan has been finding out more.

We're taking you on a little mushroom picking expedition in the woods just outside a university lab that's turning dead trees and fungus into insulation that could one day blow plastic foam, also known as polystyrene, right off the shelves.

Mushrooms have been used for hundreds and thousands of years in the Arctic.

That's Professor Philippe Amtislavski from the University of Alaska.

Here is one.

It has a very fancy Latin name, Fomus Fermentarius.

It is very common across the Arctic world and subarctic.

If you knock on it, the sound is very similar to what we got from styrofoam.

So, how on earth do you turn mushrooms or mycelium, the root-like structure of a fungus, into insulation?

Alexandra Rovello is on a mission to stop plastics choking our oceans.

What we do in the lab is mix like wood fiber, like pulp, and cardboard.

And you use a foaming apparatus.

So then that foam can get inoculated with mushroom.

And then you'll put it in an incubator in a pan and then you'll let it grow in that incubator for about five days and you'll have a solid board that can be used as insulation material.

We're not using any chemicals or any bounding material.

It's the mushroom itself that's creating this and turning it into a board instead of just a mush.

That's so cool.

So it's designed to replace the polystyrene containers that keep the fish chilled while they're transported around the world.

And bonus, if this mushroom insulation ends up in our oceans, sea creatures won't choke on it.

In fact, apparently, they can actually eat it.

Is this one of the boxes we have here on the table?

Yeah, this is amazing.

So it's...

It feels almost like a very soft emery board.

It's a really unusual material.

It feels really solid.

It's very light.

Sport-caught fish, like salmon, halibut.

Down at Kodiak Harbour, Chris Sanito from Wild Source is putting this revolutionary mycelium cooler to the ultimate test, Alaska's unforgiving fishing industry.

The shipping is very expensive on a box, just a pound difference is real dollars.

So the benefit of styrofoam is that it's lightweight and durable, but the disadvantage is that it's real.

It's not biodegradable.

Yep, that's right.

There's a real need for an alternative.

Mycelium is is already outperforming some conventional foams in fire resistance, sustainability, and durability.

Alex, there's not really an end to the potential here then.

I feel like my personal dream is, yes, for styrofoam and plastic products to leave our everyday use, but also to inspire

You know, all the brilliant minds that are out there that there are solutions in nature, there are alternatives.

We don't have to just stay with what we know is bad for us.

We can, yeah, we can reinvent our modern existence with solutions that exist in nature.

That was marine biologist Alexandra Rovello, ending that report by Anna Holligan for People Fixing the World, which you can find wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Let's turn now to the story of a three-way standoff between a man, a bear, and a dog.

It's what happened to 71-year-old Craig Campbell when he went hiking with his Doberman called Night in Canada last year.

I won't tell you the ending.

I'll leave that to Craig himself.

He's been speaking to our reporter.

Will talk.

I try to walk in the wild every single day.

So I was out on this one trail and something caught my eye.

Through the bush, I could see the silhouettes of a mother bear and two sub-adult cubs.

Sub-adult cubs are large cubs, probably in second, possibly even third year.

So they're about the size of a regular black bear.

And as I stood there, just suddenly the bear charged.

She came flying out of the bush at a high rate of speed.

I kept my eyes on the bear.

I realized I'm not going to get the bear spray out in time before this thing is on me.

And then I saw my doberman had raced towards the bear and leaped directly in front of the thing causing it to rear up i hadn't moved since the charge of the bear because well i was trying to keep my wits about me which was a little difficult as i was absolutely terrified the dog crouched directly below the bear she stood there for it was probably only 10 seconds but it felt like about 10 minutes We had this standoff.

It was just a tableau.

There was me, the dog, and the bear.

And we all simply stood there.

Finally, the bear dropped and turned and scampered back into the bush.

At which point, I was saying to myself over and over and over, I'm going to live.

I'm going to live.

Wow.

And that's the end of that story.

I mean, it's quite some story.

And how did you feel to have your dog step in like that?

How did that make you feel?

I truly realized what a fabulous, fabulous dog I had.

99.9% of all dogs will simply run from any kind of a bear.

What was the treat that waited for him when you got back home?

I think I gave him one extra piece of chicken, raw chicken.

I was a little chintzy on, I was a little chintzy on the treats.

Everybody asked me, Did I go out and buy steaks for the dog?

No, no, nothing like that.

Oh, well, look, we should end on really a bit of a public service announcement because, as I understand it, in most actual bear attacks, the dogs usually make it worse.

So, this just overemphasizes just how lucky you were on that day.

Oh, Will, I was completely lucky for me to have Knight

reverse this.

It was something else.

I mean, I came to understand just what a tremendous dog Knight actually is.

That was Craig Campbell speaking to Will Chalk.

And Knight has since been recognised with a national award and a year's supply of dog treats.

And that's all from the Happy Pod for now.

We'd love to hear from you about any memorable walks you've had with or without a dog or a bear.

As ever, the address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk.

And you can now watch some of our interviews on YouTube.

Just search for the happy pod.

This edition was mixed by Jack Wilfan.

The producers were Holly Gibbs and Harry Bly.

The editor is Karen Martin.

I'm Jeanette Jalil.

Until next time, goodbye.

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