An ISU student underwent olfactory stem cell surgery in February and has made phenomenal progress since a motorcycle accident left him paralyzed from the chest down.

In September 2005, Lee Harris, junior in mechanical engineering, was in a motorcycle accident that shattered his spine.

Between then and now, he used a wheelchair and the doctors gave him no chance of recovery – but Lee had a different fate in mind.

After raising more than $20,000 through fundraising in his “Free Lee” campaign, Lee underwent olfactory stem cell surgery in Portugal.

The surgery was a six-hour procedure that involved taking stem cells from Lee’s nasal cavity and placing them in his spinal cord at the injured site.

“Dr. Lima mentioned that there was very little scar tissue, and the lesion was smaller than expected,” Lee wrote in his journals, which are posted on his MySpace Web site.

“[Lima] was very excited about my potential and felt that I was a very good patient for both the surgery and the rehabilitation.”

Renee Harris, Lee’s mother, said she was not really afraid when he had the surgery.

“He had a couple surgeries before, and he had always handled it well,” Renee said.

“Dr. Lima was very nice and the staff was very attentive,” Lee wrote on his home page.

Since the surgery, Lee has been in intensive rehabilitation at the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, where he goes to physical therapy every day for three hours and lifts weights for another two hours.

Lee is now able to walk 300 feet using only a walker and leg braces, and he can crawl about 80 feet.

“I am happy with my progress so far,” Lee said.

Lee wrote on his home page that he still had no noticeable changes in sensation, but his sitting balance has improved greatly, and he can walk and crawl, which means his core muscles must be getting stronger.

The surgery could take up to three years to show results, Lee said, and it has only been about four months.

“We’re ecstatic,” Renee said of Lee’s progress in Detroit. “He has made a lot of strides there.”

Lee will be return to Ames on June 20, and shortly after that he plans on going to Australia for a month.

He will continue his education at Iowa State in the fall as a junior, then return to Michigan in the spring to carry on his physical therapy.

Lee’s advice for others in similar positions is to get back into their everyday lives.

“A lot of people, when they get hurt, they just act like it ends their lives,” Lee said.

Lee’s mission is to raise awareness of his situation so that someday a cure for spinal cord injuries will be found.

“The more aware people are, the more progress that can be made,” Lee said.

For more information on Lee’s experience, go to www.myspace.com/wheelchair_warrior.