Oscar, showing off his super new bionic back legs.
Oscar, a handsome English gentleman kitty, lost the lower halves of his back legs in a farm accident in October of 2009. In a ground-breaking feline first in Britain, the two-and-a-half year old cat was perfect candidate for a new surgical procedure that could save his life, bionically.
The BBC produced a short documentary of Oscar’s groundbreaking surgery & recovery, the below is a short snippet:
Taken from The Straits Times: Oscar lost at least one of his nine lives when he was run over by a combine harvester last October – but eight months later he has regained a spring in his step. The prosthetic paws were fitted by neuro-orthopaedic surgeon Noel Fitzpatrick, in a three-hour operation involving grafting the replacement legs onto the stumps of Oscar’s remaining bones.
‘The real revolution with Oscar is because we have put a piece of metal and flange into which skin grows into an extremely tight bone,’ said Dr Fitzpatrick, who carried out the surgery last November.
Oscar, climbing the stairs with his little bionic paws, no problem.
‘Oscar can now run and jump about as cats should do.’ His owner Kate Nolan said: ‘We had to do a lot of soul-searching and our main concern has always been whether this operation would be in Oscar’s best interests and would give him a better quality of life.’
Playing with a toy like nothing happened. Oscar rules.
Dear Oscar, keep a sharp eye on your remaining 8 lives little dude. Rock on.
