# Regaining feeling decades after paralysis?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regaining-feeling-decades-after-paralysis/504708>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 29, 2009, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regaining-feeling-decades-after-paralysis/504708 "2009-07-29T21:38:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regaining-feeling-decades-after-paralysis/504708/1 "2009-07-29T21:38:53Z")

</div>

I was told a story from an aquaintance about a former soldier he knows who was badly wounded in 1965 (war between India-Pakistan, Pakistani officer) and paralysed (sp?) from the waist down. He told me over the 44 or so years he has reagained some feeling, apparently around one of his thighs, no where near enough to move, but there is feeling in one area of his body where there was none. This came up in a conversation about the body always trying to heal itself.

This being a friend of a friend situation I have my doubts? But has such a thing ever been documented?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regaining-feeling-decades-after-paralysis/504708/2 "2009-07-29T21:45:35Z")

</div>

Sure, paralysis heals sometimes. Look at this recent case involving the red herring of a spider bite for an example:

> **[Spider Bite Cures Paralyzed Man: Miracle or Bad Reporting?](https://www.livescience.com/9627-spider-bite-cures-paralyzed-man-miracle-bad-reporting.html)**
>
> News reports of a man walking again thanks to a spider bite are likely wrong.