Dr. Ajay K. Seth - Rewired: An Unlikely Doctor, a Brave Amputee, and the Medical Miracle That Made History

Contents

PRAISE FOR REWIRED

Moving an arm involves probably 500 million neurons. The idea to translate thoughts into motion had not been done before. Dr. Ajay Seths groundbreaking surgery has caused prosthetic research to leap forward. Dr. Seth has caused his patient Melissa Loomis to be the most advanced amputee in the world.

Mike McLaughlin

Chief Biomedical Engineer/Prosthetics; Chief Engineer for Research and Exploratory Development, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory

Dr. Ajay Seth is a critical part of our SWAT team as the volunteer on-site medical advisor. We never know when well need to call on him, but when we need Dr. Seth, he always responds. Our guys get fantastic medical backup because he is civic- and community-minded, donating his time to the police department.

Donny Miller

SWAT Commander, Canton, Ohio

Dr. Ajay Seth is always on his game on sports radio. He knows a lot about basketball, and it shows, but his knowledge of medicine is so vast, its hard to imagine. You can see it in his ability to care for others, including professional athletes.

Keith McLeod

Former NBA player; varsity basketball coach, GlenOak High School, Canton, Ohio

I work with Dr. Ajay Seth in medical equipment and have a firsthand look at the way he cares for patients. As a former professional athlete, Ive been in a lot of doctors offices, but Dr. Seths level of expertise proves hes one of the best.

Joe Inglett Former

MLB player and medical representative

Being raised in a sports family, I have been surrounded by professional athletes, and their doctors, my entire life. Dr. Seth is the kind of doctor who gives special care to every individual. The community depends on his volunteer work with kids in school athletic programs. My wife and I count on him for our familys health, and he always comes through.

Todd Blackledge

Former NFL quarterback; basketball coach, Hoover High School, North Canton, Ohio

Dr. Ajay Seth is the best sports doctor of any Ive ever worked with in three decades of sports broadcasting. I appreciate him volunteering his talents as a media expert for orthopedic problems on our show.

Kenny Roda

The Kenny Roda Show, Clevelands Best Sports Talker

2019 Dr. Ajay Seth

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Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by W Publishing Group, an imprint of Thomas Nelson.

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The G. K. Chesterton quote in chapter 8 is taken from The Eternal Revolution, in The Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton, Volume 1 (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986), 325.

The childrens book referenced and quoted in chapter 39 is Kobi Yamada and Mae Besom, illustrator, What Do You Do with an Idea? (Seattle: Compendium Inc., 2014).

Any Internet addresses, phone numbers, or company or product information printed in this book are offered as a resource and are not intended in any way to be or to imply an endorsement by Thomas Nelson, nor does Thomas Nelson vouch for the existence, content, or services of these sites, phone numbers, companies, or products beyond the life of this book.

Epub Edition November 2018 9780785221197

ISBN 978-0-7852-2119-7 (eBook)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Seth, Ajay K., 1972 author.

Title: Rewired : an unlikely doctor, a brave amputee, and the medical miracle that made history / Ajay K. Seth, MD.

Description: Nashville, Tennessee : W Publishing, [2019] |

Identifiers: LCCN 2018030232 (print) | LCCN 2018048893 (ebook) | ISBN 9780785221197 (E-book) | ISBN 9780785221135 | ISBN 9780785221135 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780785221197 (eBook)

Subjects: LCSH: Loomis, Melissa. | Women amputeesUnited StatesBiography. | Women amputeesRehabilitationUnited States. | ArmInnervation.

Classification: LCC RD796.L66 (ebook) | LCC RD796.L66 S48 2019 (print) | DDC 362.4/3092 [B]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018030232

Printed in the United States of America

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For my parents, Raj and Asha Seth, who immigrated from India

for the sole purpose of providing their children a better education and the

chance for unlimited opportunities. I hope I have fulfilled their dreams.

For my wife, Kimberly; my children, Jaideep and Trinity;

and my sister, Angela. I hope Ive been able to set an

example that it doesnt matter what you do in life; its

about the pursuit of accomplishing the impossible.

For Melissa, who believed and trusted in me

without any hesitation or doubt.

T he idea for this book began, of all places, under a basketball hoop in North Canton, Ohio. A friend and I were chatting as we watched our kids play.

So tell me about that operation, he said. The one I saw on the news. Im trying to wrap my mind around it.

I get that a lot. I smiled and did my best, one more time, to distill a complicated story. As always, I stressed the truly amazing stuff, which I was still trying to wrap my mind around.

My friend listened carefully and said, You know what? All of that gets me thinking. I mean, Im not the super-religious type. But when I hear that story, its hard not to believe a higher power is at work. You ought to write a book so everybody can hear about this. Ill buy the first copyand maybe the second.

Everywhere I wentto the grocery store, out to eatI was expected to tell this story one more time. It seemed to captivate everyone who heard it. So in the end I decided a book made a lot of sense.

This book is about Melissa Loomis, a forty-three-year-old woman who suffered from one of the worst infections Ive ever seen. She endured four months of surgeriesfourteen totalas well as gut-wrenching decisions and emotional ups and downs. In that way shes like many other patients.

But just in that way. Otherwise, shes utterly one of a kind.

Ive dealt with patients in many situations. What makes Melissa Loomis different is her unique combination of thoughtfulness, kindness, eerie calm, and (especially) courage: she has never given in to self-pity or held a sense of entitlement, even to something as basic and human as having two functional arms.

She didnt stumble into this narrative by chance. I believe she was chosen for it, and after youve read this narrative, you just might too. Melissa was the perfect choice for the trial no one saw coming.

But the events themselves were equally singular. As youll see, we saw twist upon twist, until the word coincidence simply no longer fit into its grand design. Still, I didnt see the whole picture for quite a while. One day early in February 2016, my mind assembled all the pieces and saw the full panorama of greater things at work.

If I can show you that picture clearly, youll see two things: (1) a portrait of the kind of person who prevails in the face of lifes worst momentssomeone like Melissa, with her positive, rugged, and unflappable spiritand on top of that (2) a clear picture of everyday life touched by the divine. I attribute 51 percent of the result of the surgery to God and 49 percent to Melissa herself.